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AT  THE  SIGN  OF 
THE  STOCK  YARD  INN 

THE  SAME  BEING  A  TRUE  ACCOUNT  OF 
HOW  CERTAIN  GREAT  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF 
THE  PAST  HAVE  BEEN  COMMEMORATED 
AND  CLEVERLY  LINKED  WITH  THE  PRESENT; 
TOGETHER  WITH  SUNDRY  RECOLLEC- 
TIONS INSPIRED  BY  THE  PORTRAITS 
AT    THE    SADDLE   AND    SIRLOIN    CLUB 


By  ALVIN  HOWARD  SANDERS,  D.  AGR.,LL.D. 

EDITOR  "THE  BREEDER'S  GAZETTE." 
AUTHOR  OF  "SHORTHORN  CATTLE" 
AND  "THE  STORY  OF  THE  HEREFORDS" 


Slock. 


WV-:, 


CHICAGO 

BREEDERS  GAZETTE   PRINT 

1915 


Copyright,  1915, 

BY  SANDERS  PUBLISHING  CO. 

All  rights  reserved. 


^-yJ" 


J- 


OV 


^N.^ 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

I— The  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club 5-7 

II— An  International  Triumph 8-10 

III— The  Grasp  of  a  Friendly  Hand 1 1-20 

IV— The  Lighting  of  a  Torch 21-26 

V— Dreams  Come  True 27-32 

VI— The  Trophies  of  Miltiades 33-39 

VII— A  Sanctum  Sanctorum 40-45 

VIII— Aladdin's  Lamp 46-50 

IX— Durham  Divinities 51-59 

X— The  Grassy  Lanes  of  Hurworth 60-66 

XI— From  Sire  to  Sons 67-73 

XII— A  Master  of  Arts 74-88 

XIII— Romance  of  the  Dukes  and  Duchesses 89-107 

XIV— The  First  Farmer  of  England 108-1 14 

XV— Northern  Lights 1 15-125 

XVI— Creators  of  Pastoral  Wealth 126-137 

XVII— "The  Herdsman  of  Aberdeenshire" 138-143 

XVIII— When  Success  Came  to  Sittyton 144-154 

XIX— A  Baronial  Hall 155-160 

XX— Beginnings  of  Illinois  Cattle-Breeding 161-170 

XXI— "Set  Ye  Up  a  Standard  in  the  Land" 171-186 

XXII— The  Sunny  Slopes  of  Linwood 187-200 

XXIII-Aftermath 201-208 

XXIV— A  Knight  of  the  Golden  Days 209-220 

XXV— The  Inspiration  of  the  Inn 221-224 

XXVI— History  in  the  Making 225-238 

XXVII— Some  Purely  American  Achievements 239-246 

XXVIII— The  Laird  of  Netherhall 247-250 

XXIX— A  Lover  of  the  Land 251-256 

XXX-Fiat  Lux 257-262 

XXXI— The  Call  of  a  Distant  Past 263-285 

XXXII— Some  Steps  in  Live-Stock  Journalism 286-294 

XXXIII— Where  Production  and  Distribution  Meet 295-304 

XXIV— "Should  Auld  Acquaintance  Be  Forgot?" 305-3 1 6 

XXXV— A  Wayside  Shrine 317-319 

XXXVI-Falling  Leaves 320-322 


333972 


To  the  members  of  the 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  Glub 
and  kindred  spirits  of 
every  land,  this  volume 
is  dedicated  by 

The  Author 


THE    SADDLE   AND   SIRLOIN    CLUB 

To  those  who  are  interested  directly  or  indirectly 
in  the  Nation's  greatest  industry  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  Club  has,  from  its  very  inception,  appealed 
with  compelling  force.  To  those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  history  of  modern  husbandry  and  with  the 
development  of  the  leading  types  of  improved  domes- 
tic animals  found  in  Great  Britain  and  America,  the 
Club  is  simply  fascinating.  To  those  who  find  in  its 
quiet  precincts  a  restful  place  of  refuge  in  the  heart 
of  a  more  or  less  forbidding  environment  it  is  a  source 
of  endless  satisfaction.  In  all  directions  round  about 
there  is  naught  but  drear  monotony  and  commonplace, 
a  wilderness  of  bricks  and  yards  and  passageways, 
and  over  all  there  hangs  persistently  the  pall  of 
smoke  emitted  by  the  craters  of  ceaseless  and  co- 
lossal commercial  activities. 

To  those  who  glory  in  the  triumphs  of  the 
master  minds  of  the  animal  breeding  world  it  is  a  joy 
forever.  Members  and  guests  alike  feel  instinctively 
the  touch  of  its  refining  atmosphere.  Even  those 
who  know  nothing  of  the  history  of  the  Club  and 
have  no  acquaintance  with  the  names  or  deeds  com- 
memorated by  the  portraits  hanging  upon  its  walls 
cannot   fail    to    sense    at   once    the    presence    of   a 


AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


psychologic  influence  distinctly  inspiring  in  its  char- 
acter and  operation. 

Thousands  hurry  by  it  day  by  day,  yet  know  it 
not.  Many  enjoy  its  creature  comforts,  but  few  there 
be  who  catch  its  real  significance.  The  vast  majority 
of  those  who  pass  its  portals  know  merely  this:  it 
serves  as  a  convenient  rendezvous  for  all  those  whose 
interests  center  within  the  busiest  square  mile  of 
territory  in  all  this  world;  a  place  where  men  contest 
fiercely  and  continuously  for  the  prizes  of  successful 
competition;  where  power  meets  power  and  the  race 
is  only  to  the  strong. 

You  may  be  amazed  at  the  overwhelming  demon- 
strations of  modern  industrial  efficiency  seen  in 
Packingtown.  You  may  note  that  the  Exposition 
Building's  northern  wall  forms  one  side  of  the  peace- 
ful courtyard  of  the  beautiful  Stock  Yard  Inn.  You 
may  stop  for  luncheon  at  the  Glub,  and  may  manifest 
a  languid  interest  in  its  pictures.  Some  may  be  able 
to  grasp  the  true  relationship  of  all  these  things,  one 
with  the  other;  but  unless  you  have  some  familiarity 
with  the  story,  unless  your  memory  can  take  you  back 
to  a  day  when  there  was  no  Inn,  no  International 
Show,  no  Glub,  and  above  all  unless  one  has  at  least 
a  speaking  acquaintance  with  the  more  notable 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  portraits,  one  will  miss  entirely 


THE  SADDLE  AND  SIRLOIN  CLUB 


that  which  means  so  much  to  a  rapidly-passing  gen- 
eration. 

You  who  have  heard  day  after  day  and  night  after 
night  the  applause  of  splendid  audiences  as  the  final 
proofs  cf  man's  mastery  of  the  mysteries  of  animal 
procreation  and  development  have  been  presented  in 
the  great  amphitheatre;  you  who  have  adjourned 
from  the  ringside  to  the  taproom  of  the  Inn,  or 
sought  the  cozy  corners  of  the  Club  to  discuss  the 
wonders  of  the  shows;  you  who  toil  daily  within  the 
Yards — may  appreciate  fully  the  privileges  you  enjoy, 
and  again  you  may  not. 

I  stood  one  day  before  the  pictures  of  Tom  Booth 
and  Robert  Alexander  recalling  visions  bright  and 
vistas  fair  of  Warlaby  and  Woodburn.  Some  strangers 
passed  that  way,  apparently  pleased  and  interested. 
Obviously,  however,  they  could  not  see  the  pictures 
I  was  contemplating.  In  another  room  I  stopped. 
Linwood  and  Oaklawn  were  pulling  at  my  heart- 
strings. Triumphs  and  tragedies  unforgettable  were 
passing  in  review  on  every  hand,  all  unseen  by  those 
who  were  wandering  aimlessly  through  the  galleries. 
That  night  an  impulse  seized  me.  Was  it  possible 
to  communicate  to  others  even  a  faint  reflection  of 
the  treasures  of  this  place  of  dreams?  Was  it  within 
the  power  of  anyone  to  convey  to  the  members  of 


AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


this  unique  organization  and  their  many  guests,  any 

adequate    explanation   of   the    reason  why  we   find 

there  so  much  to  admire  and  even  reverence?    Gould 

words  be  found  that  might  serve  even  in  slight  degree 

to  give  outward  expression  to  what  is  inwardly  felt 

by  many  of  those  who  frequent  lovingly  the  Saddle 

AND  Sirloin  Glub?    And  my  fancy  at  the   moment 

took  this  turn: 

Stranger  within  our  gates,  whoe'er  thou  art, 
Within  these  silent  walls  ye  may  commune 
With  lofty  spirits  of  a  mighty  past, 
Rich  in  achievements  wrought  in  fruitful  fields 
And  benefactions  rendered  human  kind. 

Here  have  we  builded  us  an  inner  shrine 
Wherein  the  wrangling  of  the  busy  market  place 
Obtrudeth  not;  whereto,  in  quiet  hours  we  come 
To  cast  aside  each  selfish  sordid  thought 
And  pledge  ourselves  to  high  ideals  anew. 

So  now,  dear  reader,  if  you  would  follow  me  in  an 
effort  at  sketching  broadly  some  of  the  stories  that 
cluster  around  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Glub,  I  bid 
ye  summon  to  your  aid  at  once  that  intangible  attri- 
bute of  the  human  intellect,  that  essence  of  the  soul 
perhaps — by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called — that 
lifts  man  high  above  the  level  of  the  brute  creation: 
the  power  that  can  irradiate  with  living  light  dim 
places  and  dumb  walls  or  hang  a  halo  round  the 
apparently   commonplace.     It  comes   not  quickly  at 


THE    SADDLE   AND    SIRLOIN    CLUB 


one's  beck  and  call.  Indeed,  by  some  it  is  invoked 
in  vain.  With  most  of  us,  however,  it  is  susceptible 
of  successful  cultivation.  It  is  the  subtle  product  of 
an  abiding  love  for  the  higher  and  more  elevating 
things  of  life,  and  finds  fruition  only  in  a  knowledge 
of  them.  It  comes,  of  course,  in  fullest  measure  to 
those  favored  of  the  gods  who  habitually  seek  and 
find  "sermons  in  stones  and  good  in  everything." 


II 

AN  INTERNATIONAL  TRIUMPH 

All  day  long  the  cumulative  work  of  generations 
of  men  had  been  on  exhibition.  Valued  at  well  beyond 
the  million  mark,  the  latest  creations  of  the  art  of 
arts  had  been  admired  and  studied  by  a  seething 
mass  of  humanity,  to  which  city  and  country  alike 
had  generously  contributed.  With  the  lure  of  living, 
breathing,  physical  perfection  strong  in  all  their 
hearts,  they  had  followed  with  unflagging  enthusiasm 
the  endless  competitions  and  parades.  Never  had 
such  appreciation  been  manifested  in  such  a  presen- 
tation. Never  had  the  display  of  models  been  so 
splendid.  Old  countrymen  familiar  with  the  English 
Royal,  the  Scottish  National  and  London's  Smithfield 
frankly  expressed  amazement  at  the  degree  of  per- 
fection, the   quality  and   fidelity  to   type    displayed. 

Ambassadors  of  foreign  powers  diplomatically  dis- 
cussed the  results  achieved  in  America  as  contrasted 
with  those  obtained  abroad.  The  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture exchanged  felicitations  with  the  official  repre- 
sentatives of  neighboring  nations.  Governors  of  many 
states  rejoiced  in  the  visible  evidences  of  the  rural 
riches  of  our  Western  Commonwealths.  Wall  Street 
men  rubbed  elbows  with  magnates  of  the  western 
range,  or  talked  of  Glydes  and  Shropshires.  Everybody 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    TRIUMPH 


met  or  wanted  to  meet  the  English  judge  who  had 
crossed  the  seas  to  apportion  championship  rosettes. 
Guests  from  the  Orient  and  the  Argentine  concealed 
not  their  surprise  and  keen  delight  at  the  superb 
character  and  overwhelming  extent  of  the  exhibits. 

Presidents  of  universities,  directors  of  agricultural 
experiment  stations,  landlords  and  tenants,  feeders, 
farmers,  students,  packers,  commission  merchants, 
buyers  and  salesmen  of  high  and  low  degree,  men, 
and  women  too,  from  widely  separated  sections  of 
our  country,  followed  with  an  interest  unrestrained 
the  hard-fought  battles  of  the  ring.  Rival  college 
delegations  shouted  loud  defiance  back  and  forth 
across  the  field  until  all  were  hoarse.  The  thrill  of 
combat  was  in  the  blood.  The  enthusiasm  was  elec- 
tric. The  very  air  was  charged.  But  at  length  the 
strenuous  day  was  done. 

Massively  magnificent  and  splendidly  impressive 
incarnations  of  animate  power  in  heavy  harness  thun- 
dered out  of  the  great  arena  to  the  crash  of  brass 
and  drums  and  the  plaudits  of  the  multitude.  The 
assembled  thousands  rose  en  masse,  and  cheer  upon 
cheer  resounded  throughout  the  amphitheatre.  The 
last  act  of  a  stirring,  realistic  drama  had  been  suc- 
cessfully staged.  The  throngs  were  quickly  swallowed 
up   in   the   crowded   city   street,  and   presently   the 


10  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


brilliant  scene  had  faded  like  the  insubstantial  pageant 
of  a  dream. 

At  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  a  half  hour 
later  the  big  events  of  a  satisfying  day  were  being 
discussed  by  loitering  groups  of  men  engrossed  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  real  significance  of  these 
tremendous  demonstrations.  The  International  Live 
Stock  Exposition,  greatest  of  all  competitions  of  its 
kind  the  world  has  ever  seen,  had  gripped  the  nation. 
From  gilded  coigns  of  vantage  on  the  walls  choice 
spirits  of  another  age  looked  down  in  mute  approval; 
and  thereby  hangs  this  tale. 


Ill 

THE  GRASP  OF  A  FRIENDLY  HAND 

Contrary  to  general  understanding  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  International  Live  Stock  Exposition 
was  not  the  first  move  made  by  the  present  man- 
agement of  the  Chicago  Union  Stock  Yards  in  the 
interest  of  progressive  animal  husbandry  in  the  Mid- 
west states.  The  comparatively  inferior  character 
of  the  bulk  of  the  cattle  receipts  at  central  markets 
quickly  attracted  attention.  The  one  effective  blow 
to 'be  struck  at  this  obvious  weakness  in  cornbelt 
production  was  the  elimination  of  the  scrub  or  native 
sire,  and  the  substitution  of  purebreds. 

Arthur  G.  Leonard  is  nothing  if  not  direct  in  his 
instincts  and  methods.  He  had  easily  diagnosed  the 
disease,  and  the  remedy  to  be  applied  was  indicated 
so  plainly  that  anybody  could  write  the  prescription. 
With  characteristic  celerity  he  had  soon  evolved  a 
comprehensive  plan  for  distributing  well-bred  bulls 
on  terms  that  would  insure  their  being  placed  at  once 
in  service  in  various  farming  communities.  The  idea 
was  of  course  similar  to  that  upon  which  James  J. 
Hill  has  acted  in  Great  Northern  territory.  Prom- 
inent railway  managers  were  approached  and  inter- 
ested in  the  project.  This  was  before  the  era  when 
baiting  the  transportation  companies  became  such  a 


12  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


popular  and  expensive  national  pastime,  and  the  lines 
were  able  at  that  date  to  extend  a  cut  rate  for  the 
handling  of  these  missionary  bulls.  Before  the  plan 
was  matured,  however,  its  sponsor  became  convinced 
that  while  his  remedy  for  the  deplorable  condition 
existing — the  scarcity  of  good  cattle — was  the  only 
one,  he  was  in  error  as  to  who  should  apply  it.  It 
did  not  take  long  to  convert  him  to  the  proposition 
that  the  breeders  of  the  country  were  ready,  willing, 
anxious  and  able  to  furnish  these  bulls  direct  to  all 
customers  at  living  prices;  that  anything  like  a  broad 
distribution  at  the  expense  largely  of  the  Union 
Stock  Yard  Company,  and  the  transportation  lines, 
would  really  be  cutting  the  ground  out  from  under 
the  feet  of  the  very  persons  who  most  of  all  needed 
the  strong  arm  of  a  powerful  ally  in  the  fight  they 
were  making  for  more  and  better  cattle  on  the  farms. 
And  so  the  bull  business  was  forthwith  abandoned 
for  reasons  which  in  this  case  appeared  to  be  wholly 
sound. 

"Where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way."  The  dis- 
position to  do  something  was  present  all  right.  It 
was  merely  a  question  of  the  form  the  energy  would 
assume,  and  the  country  had  not  long  to  wait. 
"The  show's  the  thing."  That  was  the  answer.  And 
lo!  the  International  Live  Stock  Exposition! 


THE    GRASP    OF    A    FRIENDLY    HAND  13 


We  must  acknowledge  at  the  outset  our  deep 
indebtedness  to  Great  Britain  for  a  majority  of  the 
most  valuable  varieties  of  improved  domestic  animals 
that  have  proved  so  useful  and  profitable  in  the 
development  of  our  live  stock  industries;  and  in  this 
same  connection  concede  the  fact  that  to  Britain's 
historic  colonial  possession,  our  neighbor  of  the  north, 
the  Dominion  of  Canada,  we  are  beholden  for  much 
that  has  been  helpful  and  inspiring  to  our  own 
people,  both  in  the  matter  of  men  and  materials 
in  the  upbuilding  of  our  herds,  studs  and  flocks.  To 
Ontario  especially  we  have  turned  time  and  again 
when  seeking  to  call  our  own  farmers  to  the  colors 
of  animal  breeding  as  practiced  so  successfully  for 
so  many  generations  by  our  Scotch  and  English 
cousins.  In  that  province  have  been  implanted  and 
preserved  by  men  of  British  ancestry  that  same 
abiding  faith  in,  and  fondness  for,  good  horses,  sheep 
and  cattle  that  have  made  England  the  birthplace 
and  nursery  of  so  much  that  the  world  enjoys  in 
the  way  of  highly  developed  animal  life. 

Our  Canadian  brethren  have  for  a  great  many 
years  maintained  at  the  Ontario  capital  one  of  the 
best  managed  agricultural  exhibitions  on  either  con- 
tinent. It  is  admirably  conducted,  is  patronized  and 
stoutly  supported  by  the  best  men  in  Dominion  and 


1-4  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Provincial  business  and  official  life,  and  is  an  edu- 
cational institution  of  highest  value,  famous  for  its 
"get  together"  luncheons  and  banquets  at  which  a 
spirit  of  mutual  good  will  and  public  enterprise  is 
fostered  with  extraordinary  annual  success.  It  was 
while  in.  attendance  at  one  of  these  Toronto  shows 
some  years  ago  that  a  group  of  men  including 
Robert  B.  Ogilvie,  William  E.  Skinner,  Mortimer 
Levering  and  G.  Howard  Davison  conceived  the 
idea  of  creating  a  great  national  show  at  Chicago, 
to  be  managed  by  and  for  the  stock-breeding  and 
producing  interests  of  North  America,  and  under- 
written financially  by  the  Stock  Yard  Company.  The 
scheme  was  laid  before  Mr.  Leonard,  who  recog- 
nized at  once  the  splendid  vista  opened.  Here  was 
the  ideal  method  of  putting  the  great  resources  and 
potential  facilities  of  the  Stock  Yard  property  be- 
hind the  live  stock  industry  in  a  practical  and  super- 
latively effective  manner. 

John  A.  Spoor,  at  that  time  President  of  the 
company,  is  an  able  and  conservative  man.  His 
company  was  in  the  stock  yard  business  first  of  all; 
but  he  was  in  full  sympathy  with  everything  that 
promised  to  promote  American  live  stock  interests, 
so  long  as  it  did  not  interfere  with  the  just  measure 
of  his  official  responsibility  to  those  whose  invest- 


THE    GRASP    OF    A    FRIENDLY    HAND  15 


ments  were  intrusted  directly  to  his  charge.  He 
had  implicit  confidence  in  the  good  faith  and  judg- 
ment of  his  manager,  Mr.  Leonard.  The  big  under- 
taking in  short  received  his  tentative  approval,  and 
later  his  unequivocal  and  hearty  commendation. 

The  initial  convention  called  to  commit  the  breed- 
ing interests  of  the  country  to  the  support  of  the 
projected  International  assembled  in  the  hall  of  the 
Live  Stock  Exchange  in  November,  1899.  The 
writer  of  these  notes  can  bear  personal  testimony 
to  the  enthusiasm  that  prevailed  upon  that  mem- 
orable occasion,  because  the  most  agreeable  duty 
of  serving  that  meeting  in  the  capacity  of  Chair- 
man fell  to  our  lot;  and  later — since  this  now  per- 
force takes  on  more  or  less  of  the  character  of 
personal  recollections  with  an  unavoidable  tinge  of 
autobiography — we  had  the  privilege  of  presiding  for 
the  first  ten  years  of  the  show's  existence  at  the 
meetings  of  its  Board  of  Directors.  Looking  back 
at  this  distance  I  cannot  refrain  from  paying  high 
compliment  to  the  unselfish  devotion  of  the  men 
who  originally  planned  the  rules,  regulations  and 
classifications  of  this  great  national  institution,  and  at 
great  personal  sacrifice  attended  the  meetings  and 
superintended  the  launching  of  so  great  an  enter- 
prise.    In  the  course  of  some  thirty  years  of  identi- 


16  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


fication  with  the  interests  centered  in  this  show, 
the  writer  has  sustained  various  official  relations 
with  many  representative  men;  but  retrospection  far 
extended  brings  to  mind  no  pleasanter  associations 
than  those  connected  with  the  upbuilding  of  the 
International  Live  Stock  Exposition. 

Let  not  those  who  view  the  show  now  after  a 
lapse  of  fifteen  years  imagine  that  it  blossomed  into 
full  flower  in  a  night.  Quite  the  contrary.  Tem- 
porary and  decidedly  cramped  accommodations  for 
both  man  and  beast  were  at  first  all  that  could  be 
offered.  But  the  disposition  to  help  was  there,  and 
slowly  but  surely  it  won  for  itself  liberal  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  Stock  Yard  Company  and  in- 
creasing patronage  from  the  public. 

It  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  a  great 
permanent  building  would  be  erected  primarily  for 
the  benefit  of  the  International.  This  of  course 
involved  the  occupancy  of  a  large  tract  of  enor- 
mously valuable  real  estate  and  the  erection  of  a 
huge  fireproof  structure  specially  adapted  to  ex- 
hibition purposes.  Once  more  Mr.  Spoor  was  ap- 
proached with  the  proposition  to  risk  a  large  sum 
of  money  in  a  collateral  enterprise,  and  again  he 
demonstrated  his  faith  in  the  soundness  of  Mr. 
Leonard's  judgment,  and    in    the   future    of  animal 


THE    GRASP    OF    A    FRIENDLY    HAND  17 


husbandry.  He  was  already  carrying  the  heavy 
financial  responsibility  directly  entailed  by  these  an- 
nual shows.  Not  only  had  prizes  and  all  running 
expenses  to  be  met,  but  there  was  ever  hanging 
over  head  the  matter  of  possible  and  unknown  lia- 
bilities in  the  event  of  accident  or  some  untoward 
disaster  supervening. 

All  that  was  suggested  by  President  Spoor  was 
that  those  chiefly  concerned  in  the  establishment 
of  the  big  show  on  a  permanent  footing  come  for- 
ward with  a  guarantee  fund  of  $50,000  to  be 
subscribed  by  life  members  of  a  breeders'  organiza- 
tion to  be  known  as  the  International  Live  Stock 
Exposition  Association;  the  fund  to  be  placed  on 
deposit,  and  both  principal  and  interest  allowed  to 
accumulate  until  such  time  as  its  use  in  whole  or 
in  part  might  be  determined  in  some  manner  mutu- 
ally satisfactory.  This  amount  was  promptly  sub- 
scribed and  paid  in,  the  contract  for  the  big  structure 
on  Halsted  Street  was  let,  and  in  1905  the  "house- 
warming"  was  duly  celebrated.  The  contributors  to 
the  fund  which  thus  insured  the  permanency  of  the 
International  deserve  to  be  held  in  grateful  remem- 
brance. Those  who  came  forward  in  this  manner 
at  that  time  demonstrated  their  interest  in  sub- 
stantial fashion,  and  they  should  not  be   forgotten 


18  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


by  those  who  are  now  profiting,  nor  by  those  who 
will  hereafter  benefit  by  their  act.  Needless  to  add, 
it  was  not  the  $50,000  itself  that  the  Stock  Yard 
Company  desired,  but  rather  the  establishment  of 
an  underlying  personal  stake  in  the  success  of  the 
undertaking  and  the  assurance  of  continued  active 
support  which  the  raising  of  the  fund  at  that  crisis 
represented. 

William  E.  Skinner,  who  served  so  successfully 
during  many  trying  years  as  General  Manager  of  the 
show,  came  to  the  States  from  Canada  early  enough 
in  life  to  imbibe  from  his  adopted  country  a  good 
share  of  that  optimism  and  largeness  of  vision  that 
seems  given  to  many  who  have  been  caught  in  the 
whirlwind  progress  of  these  United  States  towards 
unparalleled  material  accomplishments.  Moreover, 
he  hauled  up  in  the  boundless  booming  West,  where 
familiarity  for  many  years  with  the  towering  Rockies 
and  the  uncharted  range  instilled  into  his  alert  and 
retentive  mind  vivid  conceptions  of  heights  and 
depths  and  breadths  immeasurable.  He  brought  to 
the  work  of  helping  the  International  upon  its  feet 
not  only  the  oxygen  of  the  western  plains  and 
prairies,  but  a  personal  acquaintance  with  the  stock- 
men of  the  trans-Mississippi  country  as  wide  as  it 
was  cordial   and   intimate.     Put   Skinner  off  at  any 


THE   GRASP    OF    A    FRIENDLY    HAND  19 


station  west  of  Omaha,  and  he  would  probably  call 
by  his  first  name  the  first  man  he  met,  be  he  hack- 
driver,  cow-puncher,  ranch  or  railway  superintendent, 
range  owner,  governor,  congressman  or  a  Senator 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  familiarity  instead  of 
being  resented  would  bring  the  hearty  greetings  of 
good-fellowship  growing  out  of  mutual  experiences 
or  aspirations. 

As  manager  of  the  International,  Mr.  Skinner 
gained  the  confidence  of  those  whose  support  was 
most  essential  to  success.  While  his  paths  in  more 
recent  years  have  run  in  other  directions,  he  will 
ever  be  credited  by  those  who  worked  at  his  side 
in  the  old  International  days  as  one  of  the  most 
potent  of  all  factors  in  the  evolution  of  the  greatest 
of  all  modern  live  stock  shows. 

However,  this  is  not  to  be  a  history  of  the  In- 
ternational. That  institution,  worthy  as  it  is  of  a 
volume  in  itself,  is  but  one  of  several  outward 
evidences  of  the  forward  movement  of  the  recent 
past  in  our  live  stock  progress.  The  show  is  a 
material  evidence  of  great  forces  effectively  wielded 
in  a  practical  direction.  Behind  the  conception  of 
the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Glub  and  the  erection  of 
the  Inn,  is  a  recognition  of  the  power  of  sentiment 
in  its  relation  to  work-a-day  business  affairs  that  is 


20  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


as  unusual  as  it  is  intrinsically  valuable,  and  it  is  to 
this,  more  particularly,  that  we  would  now  address 
ourselves. 


IV 

THE  LIGHTING  OF  A  TORCH 

The  initial  successes  of  the  International  brought 
forward  many  problems  pressing  for  solution.  Among 
others  this :  How  were  the  men  who  must  be  relied 
upon  to  make  the  Exposition,  and  how  were  the 
distinguished  guests  which  such  an  institution  was 
beginning  to  attract  from  all  over  the  world,  to  be 
properly  entertained  and  welcomed  ?  The  antiquated 
hostlery,  the  Transit  House,  dingy  and  out  of  date, 
was  impossible  in  that  connection.  Still  it  was  there. 
It  had  served  for  a  full  generation,  and  must  still  be 
utilized.    Then  came  the  beginning  of  a  solution. 

It  all  happened  one  afternoon  in  June,  1903. 
Mr.  Leonard,  Mr.  Ogilvie  and  the  writer  of  these 
rambling  notes  were  passengers  aboard  a  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  Railway  train  bound  for  the  most 
beautiful  of  our  inland  capitals — the  city  of  Madison, 
Wis.  To  be  more  explicit,  we  were  on  our  way  to 
pay  a  visit  to  the  agricultural  college  of  the  great 
university,  which  from  its  semi -Venetian  throne  of 
beauty  dominates  a  panorama  of  surpassing  loveli- 
ness. Dean  Henry  was  to  be  our  host,  and  as  the  train 
raced  northward  through  pastures  green  and  fer- 
tile fields,  we  fell  a-talking  on  a  subject  ever  near 

21 


22  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


the   heart   of   each — the   development   of   a   higher 
type  of  animal  husbandry  in  the  United  States. 

The  International  Show,  it  was  agreed,  would 
serve  as  a  rallying  point  for  all  who  were  interested 
in  the  flesh-making  breeds,  and  it  had  already  been 
proved  that  the  draft,  coaching  and  saddle  types  of 
horses  could  be  made  a  big  feature  of  the  exhibition. 
Ogilvie  was  the  especial  advocate  of  those  interests 
in  the  earlier  conferences,  and  it  must  be  confessed 
that  at  first  he  fought  almost  single-handed  for  their 
recognition.  His  acquaintance  with  the  stock-breed- 
ing interests  of  Great  Britain  and  America  was 
extensive,  dating  back  to  the  daring  days  when  men 
of  dauntless  courage  and  boundless  enthusiasm 
bid  up  to  $40,000  for  single  specimens  of  a  rare 
old  bovine  tribe.  He  had  personally  known  all  the 
leading  luminaries  of  the  American  pedigree  stock- 
breeding  world,  and  had  himself  bred  and  exhibited 
successfully  for  a  series  of  years  Clydesdale  horses 
of  a  type  refined  far  beyond  the  average  of  their 
day.  One  needs  but  mention  the  name  MacQueen 
to  conjure  up  in  the  minds  of  the  old  guard  of 
American  showmen  one  of  the  chief  ornaments  of 
the  draft  horse  competitions  of  a  generation  past, 
and  one  of  the  most  noted  breeding  horses  of  his 
time,  not   to  mention   rare   brood   mares   and   flash 


THE    LIGHTING   OF   A   TORCH  23 


fillies  always  set  before  the  judges  in  perfect  bloom 
— and  always  the  recipients  of  high  honors  at  the 
hands  of  discriminating  committees  on  awards. 

A  Canadian  by  birth,  and  for  many  years  engaged 
in  merchandising  in  Chicago  and  Madison,  Ogilvie 
had  all  his  life  been  a  constant  attendant  at  the 
best  Dominion  and  American  shows  and  sales,  and 
in  his  time  he  has  probably  been  familiar  with  more 
of  the  important  American  collections  of  purebred 
cattle,  horses,  sheep  and  swine  than  any  man  now 
living.  At  Blairgowrie  Farm  he  was  able  for  some 
years  to  gratify  his  ambitions  and  indulge  his  fond- 
ness for  Scotland's  famous  horse  of  heavy  draft, 
and  upon  closing  out  all  his  Wisconsin  interests  his 
services  became  available  in  connection  with  the 
management  of  the  International,  with  the  Horse 
Department  of  which  he  has  ever  since  been  actively 
identified;  and  to  his  untiring  efforts  and  ripe  expe- 
rience is  primarily  due  the  triumphant  success  of 
that  section  of  the  big  show.  It  is  but  a  simple 
statement  of  fact  to  say  that  at  the  beginning  his 
department  was  looked  upon  by  all,  save  himself,  as 
a  more  or  less  questionable  side  issue — a  feature  to  be 
tolerated  perhaps,  but  which  promised  little.  If  con- 
founding one's  contemporaries  and  colleagues  affords 
real   satisfaction,   Mr.  Ogilvie  must,  in  the  light  of 


24  AT   THE    SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK   YARD    INN 


what  has  since  transpired,  now  be  enjoying  solid 
mental  comfort  as  he  views  the  splendid  proportions 
into  which  this  department  of  the  International  has 
developed. 

Robert  Ogilvie  is  one  of  those  who  understand 
perfectly  the  weary  years  of  work  that  lie  behind  the 
production  of  an  outstanding  animal  of  any  type,  no 
matter  in  what  class  it  may  be  presented.  He  is 
one  of  those  who  glory  in  the  accomplishments  of 
the  great  constructive  breeders  of  the  past.  Like 
all  of  the  "initiated"  he  walks  in  spirit  with  Bake- 
well,  the  GoLLiNGS,  old  Tom  Booth,  Bates,  Torr,  and 
the  laird  of  Ury.  He  kens  McGombie  too  of  Tillyfour 
and  the  Keillor  Watsons.  The  Gruigkshanks,  Jonas 
Webb  and  Tomkins  are  among  the  heroes  he  has 
canonized. 

Proper  *'making-up"  for  show  he  recognizes  at 
a  glance,  whether  among  Shorthorn  bulls,  the  Here- 
ford calves  or  "humlie"  bullocks.  The  best  of  shep- 
herds are  keenly  alive  to  the  fact  that  he  also  has 
an  eye  for  a  proper  woolly  type  or  a  'leg  o'  mutton" 
rightly  filled.  Few  can  tell  you  more  of  Percherons, 
Shires,  Belgians,  Hackneys,  Suffolks,  Shetlands — all 
are  to  him  alike  familiar  friends;  and  when  the 
Clydesdale  clans  foregather,  the  sons  of  the  shaggy, 
misty  Northland,  those  who  were  born   and   reared 


THE   LIGHTING   OF    A   TORCH  25 


where  the  heather  grows  and  blooms,  can  recall  no 
more  of  the  brilliant  history  of  their  favorites  nor  retail 
recollections  of  old  days,  great  men  and  shows  or 
epoch-making  sires  with  finer  grace  or  larger  wealth 
of  fit  vocabulary!  In  these  excursions  into  the  lives 
and  work  of  the  masters  who  have  founded  and 
carried  forward  our  modern  breeds,  as  a  raconteur 
of  incidents  and  "accidents  by  flood  and  field"  in  the 
realm  of  animal  breeding,  it  must  be  said  that  since 
the  death  of  the  lamented  Richard  Gibson — peace 
be  to  dear  old  ''Dick"! — Robert  Ogilvie  stands  alone. 
But  we  are  still  aboard  that  train  for  Madison. 
Mr.  Leonard  had  already  carried  out  another  im- 
portant enterprise  in  behalf  of  American  stock- 
breeding;  no  more  nor  less  than  the  erection  of  a 
building  at  the  Yards  in  which  various  national 
pedigree  registry  associations  should  find  a  home, 
rent  free,  and  a  convention  hall  for  members'  meet- 
ings. We  talked  of  this  enthusiastically  for  a  time, 
and  then  came  the  grand  idea !  A  club  room?  Yes, 
but  what  sort  ?  Primarily,  of  course,  a  place  for  the 
daily  comfort  of  those  in  business  at  the  Yards,  but 
why  not  extend  the  proposition  in  such  way  as  to 
make  it  a  real  haven  of  rest,  a  boon  and  blessing 
beyond  compare,  to  those  who  shall  come  from  far 
and  near  to  see   the    great  show,  or  participate   in 


26  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


the  conventions,  banquets  and  other  functions  by 
which  the  newly-established  crowning  event  of  the 
year  in  American  stock-breeding  circles  would  surely 
be,  in  due  course  of  time,  annually  attended  ?  The 
old  hotel  had  no  adequate  accommodations  of  the 
sort  required.  To  that  all  readily  enough  agreed. 
And  as  we  journeyed  on,  a  vision  was  unfolded. 
There  was  painted  in  fancy  the  beneficent  ends  to 
be  subserved  in  a  thousand  different  ways  by  the 
club  of  our  dreams!  An  institution  with  incalculable 
possibilities !  The  potential  center  of  inspirations  to 
be  felt  to  the  very  outermost  edges  of  a  great 
periphery!  And  presently  all  that  was  lacking  was 
its  name!  Before  Madison  was  reached  that  point 
was  settled  once  for  all.  To  men  who  knew  and 
reveled  in  the  works  of  Dixon — "The  Druid"  of  happy 
memory,  whose  apt  titles  and  unrivaled  volumes 
on  British  country  life  are  still  the  delight  of  all 
appreciative  men — the  matter  of  a  name  for  such 
a  club  as  that  in  mind  presented  no  problem  what- 
soever. That  was  the  least  of  the  impediments. 
The  decision  was  unanimous. 

And  so  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Glub — projected 
under  a  title  now  universally  recognized  as  distinc- 
tive, significant,  and  in  extraordinary  degree  appro- 
priate— was  born. 


DREAMS  COME  TRUE 

The  International  had  now  been  fairly  started  upon 
its  spectacular  career.  The  Pedigree  Record  Building 
had  been  completed  and  advantage  taken  of  its  hospi- 
table accommodations  by  a  number  of  the  important 
national  registry  associations.  Best  of  all,  the  Club 
had  been  organized  upon  a  permanent  basis  and 
given  a  home  substantially  and  comfortably  furnished. 

Splendid  encouragement  had  now  been  extended 
by  the  John  A.  Spoor  management  to  the  producing 
industries.  True,  some  effort  had  been  made  by  the 
preceding  administration  at  the  Yards  to  lend  a 
helping  hand,  but  not  so  lavishly.  The  late  John  B. 
Sherman  was  for  years  General  Manager  of  the 
Company.  His  splendidly  executed  bust — a  partic- 
ularly faithful  piece  of  modeling  by  Carlo  Romanelli 
— may  be  seen  in  the  Club  library.  While  not  com- 
monly credited  with  doing  much  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  stock-breeding,  Mr.  Sherman,  nevertheless, 
had  been  a  contributor  to  the  old  fat  stock  shows 
of  the  early  days — along  with  P.  D.  Armour  and 
other  Stock  Yard  magnates — and  at  considerable 
expense  to  his  company,  although  with  little  profit 
to  the  cattle  business,  purchased  a  number    of  the 

27 


28  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


most  famous  of  the  bullocks  sent  into  the  first 
Lake  Front  shows,  and  maintained  them  in  charge 
of  that  good  old-time  feeder,  James  Thompson,  as  a 
sort  of  side-show  at  the  Yards,  returning  them  year 
by  year  to  the  old  Exposition  Building  at  weights 
calculated  to  astonish  cub  reporters  and  lay  folk 
generally.  A  steer  called  "Nels  Morris"  was  sent 
downtown  in  1880  at  a  weight  of  3,125  pounds, 
and  was  carried  over  and  returned  in  1881,  still 
weighing  2,900  pounds.  He  might  have  competed 
over  a  hundred  years  ago  with  ''The  Durham  Ox" 
or  "The  White  Heifer  that  Traveled,"  but  certainly 
served  no  useful  purpose  in  1880. 

Recognition  should  also  be  made  in  this  connec- 
tion of  the  effort  made  by  Elmer  Washburn  during 
the  closing  years  of  the  old  regime  in  the  direction  of 
a  closer  rapprochement  with  the  patrons  of  the  Yards. 
While  the  National  Cattle  Growers'  Association  of 
that  period  was  endeavoring  to  secure  legislation  at 
Washington  for  the  better  protection  of  our  herds 
and  flocks  from  the  threatened  ravages  of  conta- 
gious pleuro-pneumonia  and  other  devastating  animal 
plagues,  Mr.  Washburn — who  was  manager  of  the 
Yards  for  several  years — not  only  gave  liberally  of 
his  time  but  money  to  the  support  of  the  movement, 
serving  as  a  member  of  its  executive  committee. 


DREAMS    COME    TRUE  29 


DeWitt  Smith  of  Sangamon  Go.,  111.,  then,  as  now, 
a  man  of  commanding  presence,  influence  and  char- 
acter, was  President  of  this  Association  at  the  time, 
and  John  Clay  Treasurer.  The  writer  was  then  a 
young  man  looking  particularly  after  cattle  matters 
for  the  newly-born  ''Breeder's  Gazette."  This  was 
in  1885.  A  new  Secretary  for  the  Association  was 
wanted.  DeWitt  Smith  alone,  I  think,  of  all  the 
members  of  a  committee  charged  with  making  a 
selection,  thought  he  knew  me  fairly  well  at  that 
time,  and  assumed  the  responsibility — all  unbeknown 
to  myself — of  having  me  elected  to  that  position. 
I  always  had  an  idea  that  John  Glay  was  not  spe- 
cially enthusiastic  over  the  incident  at  the  moment; 
but  he  was  fond  of  Smith — as  well  as  of  DeWitt's 
brother,  the  major,  a  well-known  character  in  north- 
western ranching  circles  in  the  early  days — and 
stood,  therefore,  for  the  action  taken.  This  proved, 
I  may  say  in  passing,  the  beginning  of  a  personal 
friendship  which  I  am  happy  to  say  has  not  to  this 
day  been  impaired.  Glay  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  vital  force  of  this  old-time  National  organization, 
raising  single-handed  all  of  the  funds  with  which 
Smith,  Major  Towers,  Tom  Sturgis,  Judge  Garey  and 
their  colleagues  waged  the  long  fight  which  was  really 
the   beginning   of   the    upbuilding   of    the    National 


30  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Department  of  Agriculture  and  its  most  important 
appanage,  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry. 

The  writer  bears  cheerful  testimony  to  the  efficient 
assistance  rendered  this  important  public  service  at 
a  critical  juncture  by  Mr.  Washburn.  Not  only  that, 
but  when  the  bank  addition  to  the  Live  Stock 
Exchange  was  planned,  provision  was  made  in  its 
construction  for  a  conspicuous  recognition  of  the 
breeder,  the  feeder  and  the  ranchman.  This  took 
the  form  of  ornamenting  the  bank  entrance  with 
panelled  figures  in  bas-relief  of  the  late  John  D. 
GiLLETT — founder  of  our  once  great  live  cattle 
export  trade,  a  typical  western  cowboy — and  the 
outline  of  a  well-bred  bull.  The  latter  is  an  at- 
tempted reproduction  of  the  head  and  front  of  the 
Bates  Duchess  Shorthorn  bull  Duke  of  Underley 
(33745),  bred  by  Earl  Bective,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  sires  of  his  day  in  Britain.  The  writer 
supplied — at  Mr.  Washburn's  request — a  copy  of  the 
English  etching  by  A.  M.  Williams  from  which 
this  was  made,  and  accompanied  that  famous  archi- 
tect, the  late  Daniel  H.  Burnham,  on  several  visits 
to  the  Northwestern  Terra  Gotta  Works,  where  the 
figures  were  all  executed,  in  an  effort  at  perfecting 
the  original  modeling  in  the  clay.  Revolution  in  the 
executive   control   of  the   great   property    was   im- 


WILLIAMS'  ETCHING   OF  THE  DUKE  OF  UNDERLEY 


DREAMS    COME    TRUE  51 


pending,  however,  and  Mr.  Washburn's  period  of 
service  terminated  before  he  had  full  opportunity  to 
develop  further  plans  for  aiding  the  stockmen  of  the 
country  in  the  work  of  expanding  production  and 
improving  the  quality  of  American  meats. 

Practically  valuable  and  useful  as  the  Inter- 
national competitions  and  the  bringing  together  of 
record  associations  have  proved,  future  generations 
will  accord  the  present  management  of  the  Yards 
even  higher  praise  for  the  foundation  and  progres- 
sive evolution  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club. 
Originally  planned  simply  as  a  place  where  visitors 
and  business  men  about  the  Yards  might  meet  in 
comfort,  it  has  developed  a  mission  which,  properly 
worked  out,  will  lift  it  far  beyond  the  level  of  any 
similar  organization  in  existence. 

From  the  beginning  it  has  appealed,  both  in  name 
and  in  its  possibilities,  to  a  coterie  of  men  who 
realized  its  advantageous  relationship  to  North  Amer- 
ican live  stock  husbandry.  Foremost  among  these  will 
always  be  mentioned  Mr.  Spoor  and  Mr.  Leonard. 
However,  Robert  Ogilvie  is,  after  all,  the  one  who 
has  labored  most  faithfully  and  most  unselfishly  for 
its  development  along  broad  national,  or  rather,  inter- 
national, lines.  Ex-United  States  Senator  William 
A.  Harris  and  Mortimer  Levering — both  now  de- 


32  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


ceased — contributed  much  to  the  creation  of  the 
Club's  distinctive  atmosphere,  and  found  special 
pleasure  in  its  promise  as  a  Pantheon. 


VI 

THE  TROPHIES  OF  MILTIADES 

The  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  is  not  yet  old  in 
years,  as  time  is  commonly  measured,  but  it  has 
already  stored  up  riches  in  the  way  of  treasured 
associations.  Books  and  periodicals,  prints  and  etch- 
ings, are  found  in  almost  every  club;  but  one  mo- 
mentous day  in  Saddle  and  Sirloin  history  a  fine 
oil  portrait  of  Prof.  W.  A.  Henry,  then  Dean  of  the 
College  of  Agriculture  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
was  hung  upon  the  walls  of  the  newly-organized 
institution  at  the  Yards.  An  idea  had  been  born  in 
the  brain  of  Robert  Ogilvie.  It  has  not  yet  come 
to  full  maturity.  In  fact,  it  has  only  just  opened 
up  a  prospect  of  a  future  still  but  dimly  discerned 
even  by  those  who  appreciate  most  the  little  that 
has  already  been  accomplished.  There  are  a  few 
who  rise  not  at  all  to  the  real  conception.  There 
are  some  who  are  even  inclined  as  yet  to  scofT; 
but  there  will  come  a  day  when  these  unbelievers, 
like  their  ancient  prototypes,  will  remain  to  pray 
devoutly  within  the  temple. 

A  truth  which  is  recognized  by  all  intelligent 
men  was  well  enunciated  by  the  founder  of  the 
American  Republic:  "Agriculture  is  the  most  health- 
ful, the  most  useful  and  the  noblest  employment  of 

33 


34  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


man."  A  second  proposition  is  that  the  creation, 
development  and  perpetuation  of  beautiful  and  prac- 
tical forms  of  animal  life  is  the  particular  branch 
of  agriculture  calling  for  the  exercise  of  the  highest 
order  of  human  intellect  and  skill.  The  Saddle 
AND  Sirloin  corollary  is  that  those  who  have  attained 
distinction  in  this  field  cannot  be  too  highly  exalted; 
that  their  names,  their  faces,  their  works  should  be 
preserved  and  "handed  down  as  precious  heirlooms 
from  one  generation  to  another  as  an  inspiration  to 
all  who  seek  to  follow  in  their  footsteps.  Nothing 
is  more  certain  than  that  familiarity  with  the  high 
accomplishments  of  those  who  have  gone  before 
serves  as  the  best  of  all  stimulants  to  those  who 
are  studying  to  equip  themselves  for  this  world's 
work  in  similar  fields.  Now,  as  in  the  days  of  old, 
the  ambitious  hear  the  call  that  stirred  the  Athenian 
youth:  "The  trophies  of  Miltiades  will  not  let  me 
sleep!" 

Stuart's  speaking  likeness  of  the  great  Dean  of 
deans  hung  long  in  splendid  isolation.  Oil  portraits 
smell  of  money,  as  well  as  varnish.  They  are  not 
always  to  be  had  for  the  asking.  But  men  who 
met  each  December  to  discuss,  over  a  sirloin  or  a 
saddle,  the  breeding  and  performances  of  the  Inter- 
national champions,  were  ever  recalling  the  glories 


THE    TROPHIES    OF    MILTIADES  36 


of  the  past,  and  zest  was  added  to  their  discourse 
by  the  presence  of  living  masters  of  the  art  of  arts 
from  far  and  near.  If  it  were  Richard  Gibson  in 
the  chair  you  would  be  apt  to  hear  something  of 
DuNMORE  or  Tom  Booth — or  mayhap  Sheldon  and 
the  Duchesses.  If  Senator  Harris  joined  the  circle, 
he  might  hark  back  to  Warfield,  the  elder  Renicks 
or  to  Robert  Alexander — or  if  Linwood's  palmy 
days  were  mentioned,  something  entertaining  would 
surely  be  forthcoming  as  to  Kinellar  and  the 
Golden  Drops  or  the  good  old  Quaker  Scot  '  of 
Sittyton.  Both  these  men  were  fond  of  the  history 
.of  modern  cattle-breeding;  both  had  helped  to  make 
it.  Both  loved  to  tell  how  great  results  had  been 
attained  by  others.  Both  are  gone  forever  from 
our  sight,  but  the  spirits  of  both  still  live  within  the 
Club  and  help  to  sanctify  it  in  the  hearts  of  those 
who  were  once  privileged  to  feel  the  charm  of  their 
inspiring  comradeship.  In  another  corner  Montgom- 
ery of  Netherhall  might  be  holding  Clydesdale  court; 
and  early  in  the  International's  career  James  Peter 
of  Berkeley  came  to  judge  and  grace  the  scene, 
bringing  across  the  sea  the  story,  old  yet  ever  new, 
of  Lord  Fitzhardinge  and  Connaught.  '  From  these 
and  other  men  of  similiar  type  fell  words  of  wisdom. 
From   out   their  stores  of  knowledge  those   of  less 


36  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


experience  gathered  that  which  whetted  interest  in 
their  own  endeavors. 

From  such  an  atmosphere  as  this  it  was  easy 
to  evolve  a  plan  of  doing  homage  to  the  great  men  of 
the  olden  days.  However,  the  large  collection  of 
portraits  of  men,  living  as  well  as  dead,  now  to  be 
seen  upon  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  walls  was  not 
the  work  of  a  day,  nor  of  a  night.  Neither,  in  its 
present  form,  does  it  reflect  in  all  its  details  the 
underlying  thought  of  those  who  first  conceived  it. 
There  are  doubtless  pictures  there  that  should  not 
remain  permanently  in  such  a  company;  on  the 
other  hand,  there  are  a  great  number  missing  that 
should  be  there.  Which  is  but  another  way  of  saying 
that  the  gallery  as  it  now  exists  is  as  yet  incom- 
plete, and  not  at  all  beyond  criticism.  It  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  it  were.  But,  hov/ever  faulty  it 
may  be  in  some  details,  whatever  may  be  said  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  project  has  thus  far  been 
carried  out,  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion 
among  thoughtful  men  as  to  the  worth  of  the  plan 
itself,  or  as  to  the  educational,  historical  and  inspi- 
rational value  of  the  portraits,  as  a  whole,  already 
in  position. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  little  volume  to  dis- 
cuss in  turn  each  of  the  subjects  of  all  the  portraits 


THE    TROPHIES    OF    MILTIADES  37 


now  entering  into  the  composition  of  the  Saddle 
AND  Sirloin  gallery.  Some  day  a  Boswell,  with 
nothing  else  in  this  world  to  do,  who  might  do 
justice  to  them  all,  may  develop  in  our  midst.  Let 
us  hope  so.  A  book  could  be  written  around  the 
careers  of  many  of  these  individuals.  In  fact,  such 
biographies  in  certain  cases  already  exist.  I  know 
I  could  not  exhaust  my  theme  within  the  limits  of 
one  ordinary  octavo  in  several  illustrious  instances. 
But  we  must  for  the  present  at  least  confine  our- 
selves to  general  discussion. 

The  first  substantial  impetus  came  when  Robert 
Ogilvie  sent  forward  his  valuable  paintings  of  Charles 
and  Robert  Colling,  Thomas  Booth  and  "Nestor" 
Wetherell,  all  done  by  Stuart  in  his  palmy  days 
at  Madison  for  Mr.  Ogilvie's  own  library.  Their 
appearance  awakened  at  once  a  responsive  chord  in 
the  breasts  of  other  appreciative  students  of  the 
history  of  animal  breeding,  prominent  among  those 
so  influenced  being  the  late  Henry  F.  Brown  of 
Minneapolis,  Minn.,  a  one-time  upper  Mississippi 
lumber  king,  who  on  a  modestly-equipped  farm  on 
the  banks  of  Minnehaha  Creek  maintained  through- 
out all  the  vicissitudes  of  a  long  and  active  business 
career  a  good  herd  of  purebred  cattle.  Late  in  life, 
and  while  still  in  the  throes  of  financial  embarrass- 


38  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


ment,  Mr.  Brown  learned  that  large  areas  of  his 
cut-over  and  supposedly  worthless  northern  timber 
lands  were  underlaid  with  valuable  deposits  of  iron 
ore,  and  the  discovery  placed  him  again  in  his  wonted 
comfortable  position.  While  in  attendance  at  the 
International  Show  he  saw  the  Ogilvie  pictures,  and 
then  and  there  absorbed  the  big  idea  of  the  Saddle 
AND  Sirloin  Glub.  Soon  afterward  he  volunteered 
to  pay  for  the  painting  of  a  considerable  number  of 
the  portraits  of  old-time  Shorthorn  cattle  breeders, 
to  be  permanently  retained  as  his  contribution  to 
the  collection  then  in  embryo.  This  revealed  a  vein 
of  sentiment  in  Henry  Brown's  make-up  that  sur- 
prised not  a  few  of  his  acquaintances;  but  among 
those  who  knew  him  intimately  —  rather  than  by 
hearsay — it  was  a  characteristic  action. 

In  the  meantime  Ogilvie  had  entered  into  an 
arrangement  with  Stuart — whose  Henry  portrait  was 
the  nucleus  of  the  collection — to  come  to  Chicago 
and  execute  certain  pictures  already  ordered.  Stuart 
was  a  Scotchman  who  had  spent  most  of  his  life  in 
America,  and  at  Madison  had  gained  a  reputation  as 
a  portrait  artist  by  his  studies  of  some  of  the  lead- 
ing dignitaries  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  including 
governors,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  United 
States  senators  and  other  personages  of  national  or 


THE    TROPHIES    OF    MILTIADES  39 


local  fame.  He  was  set  to  work  upon  Mr.  Brown's 
order,  and  from  old,  and  in  most  cases  more  or  less 
unsatisfactory,  photographs  or  other  old-time  originals, 
succeeded  in  working  out  pictures  of  Robert  Bake- 
well,  Thomas  Bates,  T.  G.  Booth,  Jonas  Webb, 
William  Torr,  Barclay  of  Ury,  Amos  Gruickshank, 
Robert  Aitchison  Alexander  and  others  now  to  be 
seen  in  the  Glub  collection.  All  of  those  named 
hang  in  the  private  dining-room  now  known  to  those 
who  follow  the  Club's  fortunes  as  *'the  inner  shrine." 
It  was  Robert  Ogilvie  and  Henry  Brown,  there- 
fore, who  gave  the  gallery  its  most  valuable  and 
most  impressive  group.  In  the  baronial  hall,  the 
Glub  corridors  and  lounging  rooms  may  now  be  seen 
portraits  of  many  individuals  who  have  left  marks 
more  or  less  important  upon  American  stock-breeding. 
Some  of  these  are  of  men  still  living;  all,  however, 
persons  who  have  in  some  way  rendered  service 
presumably  entitling  them  to  this  consideration.  The 
living  have,  however,  first  of  all  to  die,  and  have 
their  works  subjected  to  the  acid  test  of  time,  before 
their  portraits  can  have  permanent  residence  assured 
or  be  considered  by  those  who  follow  after  in  con- 
nection with  the  matter  of  admission  to  place  among 
the  "immortals"  in  any  future  extension  of  the  Sanc- 
tum Sanctorum,  which  we  are  now  to  enter. 


VII 
A   SANCTUM  SANCTORUM 

Paul  Potter  could  paint  a  bull,  but  he  never 
bred  one.  Rosa  Bonheur  gave  the  world  "The 
Horse  Fair,"  but  her  models  were  creations  of  The 
Perche.  It  is  one  thing  to  draw  well,  and  deftly  blend 
pigments  on  the  canvas.  To  produce  a  national  or 
an  international  champion  is  quite  another.  The  com- 
position of  a  great  picture  calls  for  genius.  Some- 
thing more  than  that  is  demanded  in  the  assembling 
and  fusing  of  the  materials  that  enter  into  the  making 
of  a  breed.  Fabulous  sums  have  been  paid  by  con- 
noisseurs for  masterful  examples  of  the  art  preserv- 
ative. Now  andv  then  rich  rewards  have  come  to 
those  who  produce  originals. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  we  have  taken  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  have  accepted  or  appropriated 
without  special  thought  or  credit,  the  marvels  of 
the  animal -breeding  world.  We  are  in  daily  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  the  labors  of  great  groups  of 
men  who  were  possessed  of  rare  constructive  gifts; 
but  we  scarcely  know  their  names,  much  less  have 
we  any  familiarity  with  their  personalities  or  their 
labors.  We  know  that  without  good  live  stock  our 
grasses,  grains    and    forage    generally   would    cum- 

40 


A    SANCTUM    SANCTORUM  41 


ber  uselessly  the  earth;  that  the  soil  itself  would 
suffer  by  the  absence  of  the  golden  hoofs.  We  are 
aware  that  we  are  the  best  fed  people  in  the  world, 
but  few  of  us  know  or  care  particularly  to  hear 
about  how  we  came  by  these  generous  supplies. 
The  fat  of  the  lahd  is  delivered  daily  at  our  doors, 
and  yet  we  grumble.  As  for  expressing  gratitude 
to  the  great  producers  and  providers,  nothing  is 
usually  farther  from  our  thoughts.  We  do  not  mean 
to  be  ungrateful,  but  despite  the  fact  that  we  need 
cattle  vastly  more  than  cannon,  we  build  our  monu- 
ments to  HiNDENBERGS,  not  to  herdsmen.  The  sen- 
sational, the  dramatic,  gets  the  limelight  always. 
The  most  illustrious  exponents  of  the  unobtrusive 
useful  arts  are  rarely  in  the  public  eye  or  print, 
and  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  many  of  the  greatest 
benefactors  of  the  race  go  to  their  reward  for  the 
most  part  unhonored  and  unsung. 

Although  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  does  not 
yet  fully  comprehend  its  own  great  potential  power, 
it  is  doing  something  to  remind  the  country  of  these 
wholesome  truths.  It  could  do  more,  and  let  us 
hope  that  in  the  years  to  come  it  will  give  still 
further  assurances  to  those  of  the  present  and  the 
future  who  may  render  outstanding  service  along 
these   lines,  that  their  work   and   the   influence   of 


42  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


their  example  shall  not  be  allowed  to  perish.  Already 
its  ideals  are  bearing  fruit. 

The  Kansas  youth  who  receives  his  education  at 
the  Agricultural  College  at  Manhattan  sees  through- 
out his  entire  course  of  study  an  heroic  bust  in 
bronze  of  the  farmer- statesman  of  Linwood,  designed 
and  largely  paid  for  by  Saddle  and  Sirloin  influ- 
ences. The  faculty  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  of 
the  University  of  Illinois,  moved  by  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  spirit,  has  founded  a  "Hall  of  Fame"  that 
will  endure  indefinitely  and  receive  an  annual  addi- 
tion. The  American  Guernsey  Cattle  Club,  desiring 
to  honor  one  of  America's  foremost  expounders  of 
the  gospel  of  good  blood  and  good  management  in 
the  field  in  which  that  body  holds  so  distinguished 
a  position,  presents  his  portrait  to  the  Club,  where- 
upon a  movement  is  promptly  projected  for  the 
erection  of  a  monument  to  the  great  editor  at  the 
capital  of  his  adopted  state.  In  brief,  the  leaven 
which  shall  finally  leaven  the  whole  lump  is  already 
doing  its  beneficent  work.  But  the  real  advance 
lies  still  ahead. 

When  the  great  agricultural  states  shall  erect 
shafts  like  that  of  Nelson  in  Trafalgar  Square  to 
the  pioneers  in  their  development;  when  some  great 
soul   shall  some  day  give  the  Saddle  and   Sirloin 


A    SANCTUM    SANCTORUM  43 


Club  a  million-dollar  memorial  home,  filled  with  rare 
mementos,  paintings,  bronzes  and  marbles  of  men 
and  International  champions,  then  and  not  till  then 
shall  we  know  that  animal  breeding,  the  art  supreme, 
has  in  truth  come  into  her  own.  Meantime,  let  us 
thank  the  gods  that  we  already  have  one  secluded 
nook  where  those  whose  lives  are  devoted  to  the 
study  of  the  higher  evolution  of  animal  life  may  sit 
at  the  feet  of  great  achievement  and  hearken  to  the 
plashing  of  inspiring  fountains. 

It  is  just  a  little  place,  this  sanctuary  of  which 
I  speak,  and  its  windows  afford  only  the  customary 
city  view  of  myriad  roofs  and  chimney  pots.  If  you 
look  closely  you  may  get  the  outlines  of  the  Nelson 
Morris  golden  calf;  but  even  if  you  do  you  will  not 
find  many  who  can  tell  you  anything  about  it.  Besides, 
we  are  in  a  room  called  yesterday,  so  let  us  draw 
the  shades  upon  today. 

I  often  enter  this  "holy  of  holies"  of  the  Saddle 
AND  Sirloin  Club  alone  just  to  renew  old  acquaintance 
with  those  who  there  preside.  When  you  know  them 
you  will  like  them,  for  I  can  assure  you  they  are 
not  only  an  altogether  worthy,  but  a  most  compan- 
ionable lot.  You  will  get  the  twinkle  in  the  eye  of 
Thomas  Bates  before  you  have  been  long  with  the 
keenest-witted    member   of  the   company,  and    you 


44  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


will  also  learn  that  the  grim  visage  worn  by  good 
old  Amos  Gruickshank  is  but  the  mask  of  a  kindly- 
soul  reflecting  nothing  more  than  the  granite  of  his 
Aberdeenshire  hills.  And  if  you  had  spent  a  good 
part  of  a  lifetime  delving  into  their  secrets,  you 
would  find  that  it  is  the  invisible  in  that  little  room, 
rather  than  the  visible,  that  fires  the  soul  of  one 
who  enters  understandingly. 

To  my  mind,  this  little  room  is  superbly  sugges- 
tive and  symbolical.  It  is  not  simply  the  one  good 
old  Yorkshire  squire  I  see  when  I  gaze  upon  the 
kindly  face  of  Thomas  Booth,  but  all  his  race  and 
kin.  And  what  a  power  for  good  they  were  in  the 
world  of  rural  progress!  It  is  not  alone  the  laird  of 
Ury  that  fascinates  me  as  I  look  at  that  extraor- 
dinary physiognomy,  but  through  him  I  recognize  the 
mighty  impulse  Scotland  gave  to  the  cause  of  better 
farming.  It  is  not  merely  William  Torr  to  whom 
we  pay  our  homage  as  we  contemplate  those  fea- 
tures once  so  familiar  to  all  the  countryside  around 
Aylesby  Manor,  but  rather  do  we  recognize  in  him 
an  outstanding  type  of  the  trained  tenant  farmers  of 
Great  Britain — men  who  have  laid  under  obligation 
the  agriculture  of  all  the  temperate  zones  of  earth. 

Let  it  be  said,  once  for  all,  and  at  the  very 
threshold   of  our  story,  that  while  as  a   matter  of 


A    SANCTUM    SANCTORUM  45 


fact  these  rare  pictures  are  studies  of  individuals 
who  in  their  day  were  largely  identified  with  the 
origin  and  upbuilding  of  one  particular  breed  that 
has  attained  a  world-wide  vogue,  the  Club  wishes  it 
distinctly  understood  that  it  exalts  them  only  in  the 
sense  of  their  being  truly  typical  of  the  entire  class 
to  which  honor  is  intended  to  be  paid.  It  is  as  types, 
therefore,  that"  they  are  in  the  larger  sense  to  be 
considered.  At  all  times  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  these  particular  worthies  had  peers  and  col- 
leagues by  the  score,  each  of  whom  wrought  in  his 
own  way  with  varied  valued  materials,  and  your  true 
Saddle  and  Sirloiner  only  bewails  the  fact  that  the 
entire  great  aggregation  is  not  all  here  assembled. 
The  time  will  come,  let  us  hope,  when  the  galaxy 
will  be  extended  to  its  full  and  splendid  limit. 


VIII 
ALADDIN'S  LAMP 

Let  us  call  first  of  all  upon  Robert  Bakewell, 
patriarch  of  all  the  generations  of  animal  breeders 
since  his  time;  the  man  who  first  found  a  short  cut 
to  live-stock  improvement.  He  flourished  about  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  We  do  not  know 
as  much  of  his  life  as  would  be  the  case  had  his 
contemporaries  realized  at  the  time  the  magnitude 
of  his  discoveries,  or  appreciated  the  far-reaching 
influence  of  his  work.  We  know  this,  however,  that 
flying  squarely  in  the  face  of  all  preconceived  notions 
governing  the  production  of  farm  animals,  he  was 
the  first  of  the  world's  great  animal  breeders,  of 
which  there  is  record,  to  demonstrate  the  power 
of  the  principle  of  the  concentration  of  blood  ele- 
ments as  the  readiest  and  most  effective  method 
of  establishing  and  fixing  desired  characteristics. 

The  scene  of  his  labors  was  at  Dishley,  Leices- 
tershire, and  his  great  success  was  made  with  the 
long-wooled  Leicester  sheep  and  Longhorn  cattle, 
the'  latter  then  a  widely  distributed  type  in  all  the 
midland  counties.  His  work  is  said  to  have  been 
conducted  at  first  with  more  or  less  secrecy  so  far 
as  the  public  was  concerned.  Aware  of  the  general 
prejudice  existing  at  the  time  against  close  breeding, 

46 


ALADDIN  S    LAMP  47    ^■^1' 


he  probably  did  not  care  to  call  down  criticism 
while  still  experimenting.  Some  have  intimated  that 
in  the  case  of  his  "improved  Leicesters"  he  was 
actuated  by  a  desire  to  conceal  one  of  the  real 
sources  of  the  betterment  attained.  One  story  ran 
to  the  effect  that  he  had  used  in  his  earlier  experi- 
ments an  extraordinary  black-faced  "tup,"  which  no 
visitor  was  ever  permitted  to  see,  and  the  occasional 
appearance  of  blackish  lambs  among  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Dishley  sheep  long  years  later  was  cited 
as  an  illustration  of  the  power  of  atavism  or  rever- 
sion to  an  original  type  even  after  the  lapse  of 
many  generations. 

Naturally  progress  was  more  rapid  with  the 
Leicesters  than  the  Longhorns,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  the  flockmasters  of  the  entire  kingdom 
were  taking  notice  of  the  marvels  being  wrought. 
One  celebrated  ram,  Two  Pounder,  is  said  to  have 
earned  £800  in  a  single  season!  The  improvement 
of  the  Longhorns  followed,  and  the  Dishley  "breed" 
became  the  prevailing  popular  type  in  all  the  neigh- 
boring districts.  He  is  said  to  have  maintained 
somewhat  of  a  "museum,"  or  as  Dixon  calls  it,  a 
"business  room,"  in  which  there  were  preserved 
both  skeletons  and  "pickled  carcasses"  illustrating 
interesting    results    attained.     Among    these    latter 


48  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


trophies  of  the  Longhorns  were  some  joints  that 
were  prized  relics  of  Old  Comely,  that  died  at  the 
good  old  age  of  twenty-six,  with  fully  four  inches 
of  outside  fat  upon  his  sirloin.  The  herd  was  dis- 
tinguished above  all  others  for  its  depth  of  flesh, 
and  Bakewell  did  not  for  a  moment  doubt  that  he 
had  evolved  a  type  which  would  ''represent  the 
roast  beef  of  old  England  forever  and  aye."  At  a 
sale  in  Oxfordshire  in  1791  several  of  these  Long- 
horn  bulls  fetched  above  200  guineas  each,  and  at 
Paget's  sale  two  years  later  a  bull  of  Fowler's 
Bakewell  stock  brought,  for  those  days,  the  great 
sum  of  400  guineas.  King  George  III  became  in- 
terested, and  honored  the  wizard  with  a  royal  inquiry 
as  to  his  ''new  discovery  in  stock  breeding." 

To  understand  the  full  import  of  Bakewell's 
work  it  is  necessary  to  know  that  his  great  suc- 
cesses antedated  the  creation  of  all  the  leading 
breeds  of  the  present  day.  He  had  hit  upon  the 
secret  of  how  to  accentuate  specific  points  and 
insure  their  perpetuation.  That  was  the  one  great 
central  fact  developed  by  his  work — the  principle 
that  proved  the  forerunner  of  universal  improve- 
ment in  all  the  various  Island  types.  He  little 
dreamed  that  through  its  application  to  other  ma- 
terials   his    wonderful    Leicesters    and    Longhorns 


ALADDIN  S    LAMP  49 


would  in  time  be  put  in  total  eclipse.  The  live- 
stock kingdom  of  his  day  was  one  great  conglom- 
eration of  local  types  and  nondescripts.  The  "im- 
proved Shorthorn"  was  as  yet  only  incubating  along 
the  banks  of  the  River  Tees.  In  the  abutting  counties 
of  York  and  Durham  were  many  different  sorts  known 
by  various  names,  all  of  which  were  soon  to  be  suc- 
cessfully unified  by  the  cement  of  inbreeding  applied 
so  persistently  by  the  Shorthorn  fathers  after  a  con- 
templation of  Bakewell's  handiwork.  Over  in  Here- 
fordshire at  this  same  time  were  equally  varied 
assortments  of  cattle  soon  to  be  brought  together 
by  a  resort  to  the  same  magic  power  in  the  hands 
of  Benjamin  Tomkins,  his  contemporaries  and  suc- 
cessors. At  a  later  date  Ellman  fairly  made  the 
Southdown  sheep  from  Bakewell  precedents.  And 
so  we  might  go  up  and  down  almost  the  entire  line 
of  the  modern  breeds  and  sub-varieties,  and  find 
in  almost  every  instance  that  the  first  great  results 
have  been  obtained  primarily  through  the  mating  of 
near  kin  in  accordance  with  the  Bakewellian  law. 
While  his  name  has  not  been  given  to  any  of  the 
types  that  owe  their  origin  directly  to  his  demon- 
strations, over  in  France  they  have  created  a 
beautiful  breed  of  sheep,  by  a  judicious  blending  of 
Leicester  and  fine-wool  blood,  which  they  call  the 


50  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK   YARD    INN 


Dishley   Merino,   in    recognition   of   the   great   law- 
giver's English  home. 

Is  there  objection  anywhere  as  to  the  peculiar 
appropriateness  of  canonizing  first  of  all  in  our 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  sanctum  sanctorum  this  man 
who  in  truth  blazed  the  way  for  the  great  breed- 
builders  of  the  succeeding  generations? 


IX 

DURHAM  DIVINITIES 

Those  two  old  warriors  yonder  in  knee  breeches, 
high-cut  waistcoats  and  stocks  are  commonly  accred- 
ited with  being  the  most  active  of  all  the  originators 
of  the  one  distinctively  national  British  breed  of 
cattle — the  Shorthorn.  The  Herefords,  the  Devons, 
the  Angus,  the  Galloways,  the  Ayrshires,  the  Sussex, 
the  Norfolks  and  the  Highlanders  are  also  purely 
British  products;  but  the  "red,  white  and  roan" 
is  the  one  type  of  the  entire  lot  that  has  found 
favor  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  United  Kingdom 
and  Ireland,  whereas  most  of  the  others  are  still 
bred  mainly  in  the  particular  districts  in  which  they 
were  originated.  This  comment  is  made  merely  as 
a  statement  of  historical  fact  relating  to  distribution 
in  the  British  Islands  only.  As  is  generally  known, 
certain  of  the  others  have  gained  world-wide  fame 
in  vastly  broader  fields  than  is  afforded  by  all  the 
acreage  of  England,  Scotland  and  the  Emerald  Isle 
combined. 

These  two  are  probably  discussing  their  favorite 
subject:  ways  and  means  of  eliminating  certain  of 
the  obvious  faults  of  the  old  Teeswater  and  Hol- 
derness  stock,  and  improving  on  both.  They  are 
known   to  fame   as   Charles   and   Robert  Colling. 

51 


62  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


The  former  farmed  at  Ketton  Hall,  and  the  latter 
on  the  farm  of  Barmpton,  both  in  the  valley  of  the 
River  Tees,  some  three  miles  distant  from  the  city 
of  Darlington  in  the  county  of  Durham.  Cattle  of 
the  breed  which  they  were  largely  instrumental  in 
creating  are  still  referred  to  in  many  parts  of  the 
United  States  as  *'Durhams,"  although  that  name 
was  rarely  employed  in  the  land  of  its  nativity. 

Charles  Colling  paid  a  visit  to  Bakewell  in 
1T83,  and  spent  considerable  time  in  a  study  of  the 
results  obtained.  Evidently  he  was  convinced,  but 
at  the  same  time  he  wisely  deferred  the  actual 
application  of  the  Dishley  system  until  he  became 
possessed  of  materials  that  suited  his  purpose.  In 
1784  he  had  bought  the  Stanwick  Duchess  cow, 
to  be  referred  to  further  on;  but  it  was  not  until 
1789  that  he  obtained  from  Maynard  of  Eryholme 
a  roan  cow,  always  referred  to  in  her  later  years 
as  *'the  beautiful  Lady  Maynard,"  and  with  her  began 
the  actual  work  of  bringing  order  out  of  local  cattle- 
breeding  chaos. 

A  human-interest  story  this  of  how  modern 
stock-breeding  got,  in  this  purchase,  its  first  great 
impetus.  Picture  a  fair  September  morn.  The 
master  of  Ketton  Hall  about  to  start  on  a  neigh- 
borly visit  to  his  friend  Maynard,  whose  eight  bul- 


DURHAM    DIVINITIES  53 


locks  sent  forward  annually  to  the  March  market 
in  Darlington  were  always  the  object  of  much  atten- 
tion as  they  stood  on  the  pavement  opposite  "The 
King's  Head."  The  men  had  much  in  common. 
Both  loved  good  cattle,  and  this  fondness  for  ani- 
mals met  in  their  households  steadfast  sympathy. 
Mrs.  GoLLiNG  was  as  interested  in  the  farm  and  in  the 
big  red,  white  or  roan  matrons  of  the  fields  and  their 
lusty  babies  as  was  her  lord  and  master.  She  knew 
the  animals  by  name,  and  was  much  among  them. 
In  fact,  tradition  says  that  she  was  no  mean  judge 
herself.  And  so  we  see  her  with  her  husband  as 
the  Tees  is  crossed  at  Croft  on  this  historic  call 
at  Eryholme.  As  they  approach,  Miss  Maynard  is 
discovered  milking  a  rare  roan  cow,  then  seven  years 
old.  After  the  customary  greetings  the  inspection 
of  the  herd  begins.  Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Colling 
had  observed  the  foaming  contents  of  the  generous 
pail  Miss  Maynard  had  been  busy  filling  as  they 
were  arriving.  And  so  Durham  presently  fell  to 
dickering  with  York,  and  the  mother  of  the  modern 
Shorthorn  was  headed  toward  her  extraordinary 
destiny!  At  Ketton  out  of  compliment  to  the  mis- 
tress of  Eryholme  the  name  of  this  bovine  Eve  was 
changed  to  Lady  Maynard.  An  admiring  country- 
side  subsequently  added  to  this  the  sobriquet  "the 


54  AT   THE   SIGN    OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


beautiful,"  by  which   designation   she    still   lives   in 
agricultural  history. 

One  of  her  daughters  was  mated  with  a  bull 
that  had  been  produced  by  another  daughter,  the 
progeny  being  a  bull  calf  called — in  commemoration 
of  the  old  cow's  precedence  at  Eryholme — Favorite, 
with  which  was  at  once  commenced  at  Ketton  a 
most  extraordinary  course  of  concentration.  For 
years  this  bull  was  used  almost  indiscriminately  upon 
his  own  offspring,  often  to  the  third  and  in  one  or 
two  instances  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  generations, 
and  with  results  that  astounded  all  England  and 
aroused  even  distant  America.  The  get  of  Favorite 
were  not  only  the  most  noted  cattle  of  their  day 
in  all  Britain,  but  his  immediate  descendants  consti- 
tuted a  large  percentage  of  the  entire  foundation 
stock  upon  which  existing  Shorthorn  herd  book 
records  stand.  He  was  even  bred  back  to  his  own 
dam,  the  produce  being  a  heifer,  Young  Phoenix; 
and  to  still  further  test  the  power  of  Bakewell's 
scheme  in  dealing  with  such  plastic  clay  this  heifer 
was  then  bred  to  her  own  sire,  the  issue  of  that 
doubly-incestuous  union  being  the  bull  Comet  (155), 
the  pride  of  his  time  and  the  first  beast  of  the 
cattle  kind  to  sell  for  $5,000!  Mr.  Fowler  had 
once   refused   a  thousand  guineas  for  a  Bakewell 


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DURHAM    DIVINITIES  55 


Longhorn  bull  and  three  cows,  but  such  a  sum  for 
a  bull  alone  soon  set  all  England  talking  of  a  rising 
power. 

It  must  of  course  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
animals  subjected  to  this  severe  strain  had  been 
specially  chosen  originally  for  their  scale  and  con- 
stitution. Great  size  was  a  leading  tenet  with  the 
farmers  along  the  Tees,  and  they  had,  up  to  this 
period,  abstained  religiously  from  any  such  course 
as  that  which  had  wrought  marvels  in  the  "Long 
Pasture"  and  straw-yards  at  Dishley.  True,  some 
of  the  old  families  of  the  district  prided  themselves 
upon  having  kept  their  own  "breed"  pure  for  many 
generations,  but  such  liberties  as  Charles  Golling 
took  with  the  Lady  Maynard  blood  were  until  then 
quite  unknown  in  North  Gountry  live-stock  hus- 
bandry. One  can  better  imagine  than  describe, 
therefore,  the  sensation  produced  by  this  unparal- 
leled procedure  and  its  marvelous  results. 

We  must  not  fail  to  mention  here,  however,  that 
shortly  before  Gharles  Golling  acquired  in  Darling- 
ton market  the  first  Duchess  in  1784>,  he  had  used 
for  two  seasons  an  unnamed  bull  that  he  afterward 
sold  to  go  into  Northumberland,  a  bull  that  had 
introduced  a  refining  element  in  the  Ketton  cattle, 
which  doubtless  served — although  at  the  time  little 


56  AT   THE    SIGN    OF   THE   STOCK   YARD    INN 


comprehended — to  pave  the  way  for  subsequent 
successes  achieved;  but  this  is  another  story  pres- 
ently to  be  related. 

The  sale  of  Comet,  and  the  reputation  gained 
through  the  exhibition  throughout  England  of  two 
enormous  fat  beasts,  both  by  Favorite,  called  *'The 
Durham  Ox"  and  "The  White  Heifer  that  Traveled," 
served  to  spread  the  name  and  fame  of  the  Gollings 
and  their  "improved  Shorthorns"  throughout  all 
Britain,  obscuring  altogether  for  a  time  the  name 
and  fame  of  Bakewell,  and  dooming  the  Longhorns 
to  a  swift  decline  in  popularity.  Moreover,  these 
great  doings  did  not  escape  the  notice  of  a  well- 
read  pioneer  in  the  then  newly-settled  far-away 
blue-grass  region  of  Kentucky,  resulting  in  1816  in 
an  order  for  the  first  Shorthorn  cattle  ever  imported 
into  the  Middle  West.  And  if  there  be  people  of 
this  day  and  generation  who  think  that  our  own 
forefathers  lacked  in  enterprise,  let  Lewis  Sanders 
of  Grass  Hills  tell  the  simple  story  of  an  act  that 
started  the  cornbelt  of  America  on  the  highway 
to  success  in  cattle-feeding: 

"I  was  induced  to  send  the  order  for  the  cattle 
in  the  fall  of  1816  from  seeing  an  account  of 
Gharles  Golling's  great  sale  in  1810.  At  this  sale 
enormous  prices  were  paid — 1,000  guineas  for  the 


DURHAM    DIVINITIES  57 


bull  Comet.  This  induced  me  to  think  there  was  a 
value  unknown  to  us  in  these  cattle,  and  as  I  then 
had  the  control  of  means  I  determined  to  procure 
some  of  this  breed.  For  some  years  previous  I  was 
in  regular  receipt  of  English  publications  on  agri- 
cultural improvement  and  improvements  in  the 
various  descriptions  of  stock.  From  the  reported 
surveys  of  counties  I  was  pretty  well  posted  as 
to  the  localities  of  the  most  esteemed  breeds  of 
cattle.  My  mind  was  made  up,  fixing  on  the  Short- 
horns as  the  most  suitable  for  us.  I  had  frequent 
conversations  with  my  friend  and  neighbor,  Gapt. 
William  Smith,  then  an  eminent  breeder  of  cattle. 
He  was  thoroughly  impressed  in  favor  of  the  Long- 
horn  breed.  To  gratify  him,  and  to  please  some 
old  South  Branch  feeders,  I  ordered  a  pair  of 
Longhorns;  and  was  more  willing  to  do  so  from  the 
fact  that  this  was  the  breed  selected  by  the  dis- 
tinguished Mr.  Bakewell  for  his  experimental  yet 
most  successful  improvements." 

Charles  Colling  closed  his  career  as  an  im- 
prover of  cattle  in  1810,  at  which  time  three-fourths 
of  the  herd  were  by  the  inbred  Favorite  and  his 
son  Comet,  and  the  remainder  by  sons  of  those  two 
celebrated  bulls.  A  great  company  gathered  beneath 
the  limes  that  fine  October  day  of  more  than  a 
century  ago  to  do  honor  to  one  of  the  pillars  of 
British  agriculture  of  that  notable  era.  From  both 
sides  the  river  and   from   great  distances  landlords 


58  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  their  tenants,  members  of  Parliament,  and  all 
that  famous  coterie  that  had  for  so  long  fore- 
gathered at  the  Yarm  and  Darlington  markets,  came 
with  gigs  or  traps  or  saddlebags.  Every  yard  was 
filled  to  overflowing,  and  scores  left  their  horses  or 
conveyances  at  adjoining  farms.  It  was  the  event 
of  a  generation.  Ketton  was  fairly  "eaten  out  of 
house  and  home,"  and  messengers  were  hurriedly 
dispatched  to  Darlington  for  fresh  supplies. 

One  Kingston  was  the  auctioneer,  selling  by  the 
glass,  as  did  Strafford  and  John  Thornton  in  more 
recent  years.  He  had  no  aids,  and  received  the 
munificent  sum  of  five  guineas  for  auctioneering  the 
most  famous  herd  of  its  time.  The  47  head  fetched 
about  $35,000,  the  bull  Comet,  as  already  mentioned, 
bringing  $5,000.  The  highest-priced  female  was 
the  white  cow  Lily  at  $2,150.  Mr.  Golling  had 
reserved  one  treasured  cow,  the  deep-milking,  broad- 
ribbed  Magdalena  by  Comet;  but  Whitaker,  one  of 
the  "old  guard,"  importuned  his  friend  to  let  him 
have  her.  A  reluctant  consent  was  given  this  pro- 
posal, and  then  indeed  was  Othello's  occupation 
truly  gone  forever.  We  have  here  a  fine  illustra- 
tion of  what  one  enterprising,  intelligent  farmer  may 
do  for  the  world  at  large,  if  he  be  possessed  of 
vision  and  determination.     Verily,  peace  and  agri- 


DURHAM    DIVINITIES  59 


culture  have  their  victories  no  less  renowned  than 
those  of  war. 

After  the  sale  Charles  Colling  was  compli- 
mented with  a  valuable  piece  of  plate  bearing  this 
inscription : 

PRESENTED  TO 

MR.  CHARLES  COLLING, 

THE   GREAT    IMPROVER   OF   THE    SHORT -HORNED    BREED    OF 

CATTLE,    BY    THE    BREEDERS 

(Upwards  of  fifty) 
WHOSE    NAMES    ARE    ANNEXED, 

AS    A    TOKEN    OF   GRATITUDE    DUE     FOR    THE     BENEFIT  THEY 

HAVE    DERIVED    FROM    HIS  JUDGMENT,  AND  ALSO  AS  A 

TESTIMONY  OF  THEIR  ESTEEM  FOR  HIM  AS  A  MAN 

1810 

We  do  not  hear  of  this  sort  of  thing  being  done 
very  often  in  these  degenerate  days.   Why?   I  wonder. 


X 

THE  GRASSY  LANES  OF  HURWORTH 

Would  the  curious  story  of  how  a  once  nameless 
bull  emerged  from  absolute  obscurity  into  the  lime- 
light of  bovine  glory  interest  anybody  as  we  pass? 
Possibly  not.  Nevertheless  he  was  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  the  Adam  of  his  race,  and  as  such 
has  to  do  directly  with  the  forbears  of  trainloads 
of  good  bullocks  contributed  weekly  to  all  our 
central  markets. 

In  that  fateful  year,  A.  D.  17T6,  one  John  Hunter, 
a  bricklayer  by  trade,  lived  in  the  sleepy  village  of 
Hurworth,  situated  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Tees 
in  the  county  of  Durham,  just  across  that  little 
river  from  Eryholme,  the  place  where  Charles 
Colling  afterwards  found  and  purchased  Lady 
Maynard.  Hunter  had  once  been  a  tenant  farmer 
and  bred  cattle.  On  leaving  the  farm  and  removing 
to  Hurworth,  he  sold  off  all  these  except  one 
particularly  prized  little  cow,  which  he  took  with 
him.  Let  it  be  observed  in  passing  that  size  was 
at  this  time  accounted  a  most  valuable  asset  in 
the  cattle  of  the  valley.  As  Hunter  had  no  pas- 
ture of  his  own,  this  cow  was  turned  loose  to 
graze  in  the  grassy  lanes  round  about  the  village. 

60 


THE  GRASSY  LANES  OF  HURWORTH         61 


In  due  course  of  time  she  was  bred  to  "George 
Snowdon's  Bull,"  then  in  Hurworth.  From  him  the 
cow  dropped  a  bull  calf.  Soon  afterward  the  cow 
and  calf  were  driven  to  Darlington  market  and 
there  sold  to  a  Mr.  Basnett,  a  timber  merchant. 
Basnett  retained  the  cow,  but  sold  the  calf  to  a 
blacksmith  at  Hornby,  five  miles  out  from  Darling- 
ton. The  dam  of  the  calf  taking  on  flesh  readily 
would  not  again  breed,  and  after  some  months 
was  fattened  and  slaughtered.  Growing  to  a  use- 
ful age,  the  bull  in  1783  was  found,  at  six  years 
old,  in  the  hands  of  a  Mr.  Fawcett,  living  at 
Haughton  Hill,  not  far  from  Darlington. 

Mr.  Wright,  a  noted  Shorthorn  breeder,  says 
that  Charles  Colling,  going  into  Darlington  market 
weekly,  used  to  notice  some  excellent  veal,  and 
upon  inquiry  ascertained  that  the  calves  were  got 
by  a  bull  belonging  to  Mr.  Fawcett  of  Haughton 
Hill,  and  at  this  time  serving  cows  at  a  shilling 
each.  Colling  went  to  see  him,  but  did  not  appear 
particularly  impressed.  A  little  later,  however, 
Robert  Colling  and  his  neighbor,  Mr.  Waistell, 
who  had  also  seen  the  bull,  thought  well  enough 
of  him  to  offer  Mr.  Fawcett  ten  guineas  for  him, 
at  which  price  he  became  their  joint  property. 
Colling  had  seventeen  and  Waistell   eleven  cows 


62  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


served  by  him  during  the  season.  Evidently,  how- 
ever, they  were  afraid  of  reducing  the  size  of 
their  cattle  through  his  use,  and  in  the  following 
November  Charles  Colling  took  him  off  their 
hands  at  eight  guineas ! 

Charles  evidently  thought  there  might  be  real 
value  somewhere  underneath  that  mellow  hide, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  nobody  seemed  to 
think  much  of  the  bull,  and  put  him  in  active 
service  for  a  period  of  two  years,  selling  him  late 
in  1785,  at  ten  years  old,  to  a  Mr.  Hubback,  at 
North  Seton,  in  Northumberland.  The  bull  had 
not  been  deemed  worthy  even  of  a  name  up  to 
this  date,  but  the  time  came  when  it  was  of  the 
highest  importance  that  he  receive  individual 
designation.  His  new  owner  used  him  until  the 
year  1791,  when  he  was  fourteen  years  old,  and 
he  had  been  vigorous  to  the  last.  As  he  was  ending 
his  long  and  checkered  career,  these  veterans  of  the 
early  cattle  trade  woke  up  to  the  fact  that  they  had 
been  dealing  with  the  very  element  their  herds  stood 
most  in  need  of.  The  name  of  this  Northumberland 
farmer  was  then  assigned  him,  and  as  Hubback  he 
figures  in  the  history  of  the  modern  Shorthorn  king- 
dom as  the  real  founder  of  the  dynasty. 

In  other  volumes  I  have   had  occasion  to   note 


THE  GRASSY  LANES  OF  HURWORTH         63 


how  frequently  an  element  of  chance  has  served 
to  point  the  way  to  explorers  in  this  field  in  the 
early  stages  of  their  work.  I  would  not  undertake 
to  say  that  the  matter  of  judgment  did  not  enter 
at  all  into  the  original  selection  and  use  of  the  bull 
that  is  regarded  as  the  real  progenitor  of  the  im- 
proved Shorthorn;  but  certain  it  is  that  no  one  was 
particularly  interested  in,  or  excited  about,  Hubback 
(319)  at  the  time  he  was  first  put  in  limited  ser- 
vice by  the  Gollings.  But  he  revolutionized  the 
cattle-breeding  of  all  York  and  Durham  just  the 
same,  and  imparted  qualities  which  the  herds  of 
that  region  had  not  previously  possessed,  and  which 
the  best  Shorthorns  of  our  day  still  claim  as  a 
proud  inheritance. 

It  is  certain  that  neither  Waistell  nor  the 
Gollings  appreciated  the  value  of  Hubback  until 
after  they  had  parted  with  him  and  saw  the  excel- 
lence of  his  calves  as  they  grew  up  and  developed. 
He  was  small,  and  this  condemned  him;  but  his 
dam,  though  also  small  (for  a  Shorthorn),  was  **a 
very  handsome  cow,  of  fine  symmetry,  with  a  nice 
touch  and  fine,  long,  mossy  hair."  All  these  qual- 
ities Hubback  inherited.  But  scale  was  a  big  point 
in  Shorthorns  at  that  time,  and  this  assumed  fault 
led  the  Gollings  to  be  wary. 


64  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


The  subsequent  reputation  of  Hubback  was  higher 
than  that  of  any  other  bull  of  his  time,  and  "it  was 
considered  a  great  merit  if  any  Shorthorn  could 
trace  its  pedigree  back  even  remotely  into  his  blood." 
His  get  had  "capacious  chests,  prominent  bosoms, 
thick,  mossy  coats,  mellow  skins,  with  a  great  deal 
of  fine  flesh  spread  evenly  over  the  whole  carcass," 
and  the  bull  himself  had  "clean,  waxy  horns,  mild, 
bright  eyes,  a  pleasing  countenance  and  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkably  quick  feeders  ever  known,  re-. 
taining  his  soft  and  downy  coat  long  into  the  summer. 
His  handling  was  superior  to  that  of  any  bull  of 
the  day." 

The  full  significance  of  this  early  episode  comes 
to  light  in  a  subsequent  narration.  How  often  have 
only  post  mortem  honors  come  to  men  as  well  as 
bulls!  Meantime  we  must  finish  with,  and  take  our 
leave  of,  Robert  Colling. 

As  a  young  man  he  had  served  an  apprentice- 
ship with  GuLLEY  and  other  advanced  farmers  of 
their  times,  and  early  in  his  career  bought  Leicesters 
from  Bakewell,  which  he  managed  so  successfully 
that  his  ram-lettings  became  a  reliable  source  of 
profit.  Cattle  engrossed  most  of  his  attention,  how- 
ever, and  he  worked  in  close  collaboration  with  his 
brother  Charles.     He  had  bought  good  cows  from 


THE  GRASSY  LANES  OF  HURWORTH         65 


the  best  local  sources,  but  like  all  his  contempo- 
raries was  working  more  or  less  in  the  dark.  Pedi- 
grees were  practically  unknown.  There  was  no 
uniformity  of  type,  no  agreement  as  to  any  fixed 
standard  of  excellence  —  no  application  as  yet  of 
Bakewell's  method.  But  fate  was  silently  shaping 
a  great  destiny  for  the  Barmpton  and  Ketton  herds, 
and  through  them  a  great  new  breed  was  presently 
to  emerge. 

Among  the  best  of  the  Barmpton  cattle  were 
the  sorts  subsequently  known  to  fame  as  the  Wild- 
airs,  Red  Roses  and  Princesses — tribes  from  which 
thousands  of  the  best  cattle  ever  bred  in  England 
or  America  have  been  directly  descended.  From 
Barmpton  also  came  the  bulls  used  in  the  founda- 
tion of  the  epoch-making  herd  of  Thomas  Booth, 
to  be  referred  to  presently,  and  the  Princess-Hub- 
back  blood  from  Barmpton  after  the  lapse  of  many 
years  became,  through  Belvidere,  the  basis  of  the 
greatest  success  achieved  by  Mr.  Bates,  which 
somewhat  eccentric  but  extraordinary  individual  we 
are  also  soon  to  meet. 

Robert  Colling  made  a  partial  sale  of  his  herd 
in  1818  and  retired  in  1820,  having  for  forty  years 
contributed  largely  to  the  development  and  evolu- 
tion  of   the  Shorthorn  type.     At  the  first  sale  61 


66  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


cattle  sold  for  near  $40,000,  the  top  being  $3,060 
for  the  bull  Lancaster,  Mr.  Booth  giving  $1,550 
for  the  bull  calf  Pilot  (496),  afterwards  a  famous 
sire.  The  end  came  in  October,  1820,  when  the 
remaining  46  head  sold  for  around  $10,000.  There 
was  general  depression  in  agriculture  at  this  period. 
It  appears,  nevertheless,  that  about  $50,000  was 
realized  at  the  two  auctions. 


XI 

FROM  SIRE  TO  SONS 

The  original  of  the  pleasing  portrait  of  Thomas 
Booth  is  a  much-prized  heirloom  in  the  possession 
of  a  fine  old  Yorkshire  family.  It  is  so  typical  of 
the  old  school  that  the  Club  is  deeply  indebted  to 
Mr.  Ogilvie  for  its  possession  of  so  good  a  copy. 
The  elder  Booth  was  one  of  two  men — the  other 
being  Thomas  Bates — who  completed  in  sensational 
fashion  the  work  of  establishing  a  new  and  highly 
improved  type  of  cattle,  through  a  continuance  of 
Bakewell  methods  upon  the  Colling  foundations. 
The  two  worked  along  different  lines,  and  agreed  in 
one  point  only,  that  the  Hubback-Favorite  blood 
supplied  the  best  basis  for  further  progress;  but 
they  sought  it  through  different  channels,  were  in 
pursuit  of  different  ideals,  and  applied  the  blood 
after  it  had  been  obtained  in  a  decidedly  different 
manner.  Both  attained  success  such  as  rarely  comes 
to  men  in  any  line  of  work.  There  were  other  able, 
forceful  men  engaged  in  similar  efforts,  such  as 
Mason,  Wiley,  Whitaker,  Wetherell  and  Earl 
Spencer;  but  among  those  who  developed  outstand- 
ing skill  in  the  art,  the  Booths  and  Bates  will  ever 
stand  pre-eminent  in  their  day  and  generation. 

67 


68  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Mr.  Booth  was  the  owner  of  the  beautiful  estate 
of  Killerby,  comprising  500  acres  of  arable  and  pas- 
ture land  situated  in  the  charming  valley  of  the 
Swale,  two  miles  from  Gatterick.  The  house  stood 
on  the  site  of  an  ancient  military  stronghold,  from 
which  the  estate  took  its  name,  that  had  been  con- 
structed by  the  Earl  of  Arundel  in  the  days  of 
Edward  I.  The  approach  was  through  a  park 
studded  with  noble  oaks  and  elms.  Here  the  old 
master  began  those  experiments  destined  in  later 
years  to  give  to  British  herds  and  showyards  some 
of  the  most  perfect  animals  of  a  heavy  flesh-carrying 
type  the  world  has  ever  seen.  In  common  with 
the  GoLLiNGs  and  nearly  all  of  his  other  contempo- 
raries, Mr.  Booth  endeavored  to  solve  the  problem 
of  how  to  refine  the  old  Teeswater  stock.  He  real- 
ized the  faults  of  the  prevailing  type  and  was  among 
the  first  to  concede  that  through  Hubback  (319) 
and  the  Bakewell  system  the  Gollings  had  prob- 
ably hit  upon  the  long -sought  line  of  progression. 
Unlike  Mr.  Bates  and  many  other  breeders  of  the 
time,  he  did  not  deem  it  essential,  however,  to  go 
to  Ketton  and  Barmpton  for  females  to  carry  on 
his  experiments.  He  had  an  idea  that  by  crossing 
moderate -sized,  strongly  bred  Golling  bulls  upon 
large-framed,   roomy  cows  showing  great  constitu- 


FROM    SIRE    TO    SONS  69 


tion  and  an  aptitude  to  fatten,  he  could  improve 
even  upon  the  work  of  the  Gollings.  To  this  ex- 
tent, therefore,  he  must  be  credited  with  greater 
originality  than  some  of  his  brother  breeders.  More- 
over, the  outcome  revealed  that  he  possessed  quite 
as  much  skill  as  he  had  independence  of  character. 

Mr.  Booth  always  put  substance  ahead  of  points 
of  less  practical  importance,  and  from  the  very  first 
regarded  flesh-making  capacity  and  breadth  of  back 
and  loin  of  more  value  than  persistent  flow  of  milk. 
While  there  were  some  cows  of  marked  dairy  capa- 
city in  his  original  herd,  they  soon  acquired  a  dis- 
position to  "dry  off"  quickly  and  put  on  great  wealth 
of  flesh — a  trait  which  ever  afterward  distinguished 
the  best  of  the  Booth  cattle. 

The  inbred  Colling  bulls  on  the  unpedigreed 
market-cow  foundation  had  given  Mr.  Booth  by  the 
year  1814  two  families  of  cattle  in  particular,  called 
the  Strawberries  (or  Halnabys)  and  the  Bracelets, 
that  made  great  weights  and  possessed  plenty  of 
substance  and  constitution,  but  lacked  somewhat 
in  refinement  and  quality.  In  that  year  his  son 
Richard  engaged  in  Shorthorn  breeding  at  Studley, 
taking  from  Killerby  three  good  cows,  one  of  which, 
Ariadne,  became  the  dam  of  Anna  by  Pilot,  ances- 
tress of  one  of  England's  greatest  showyard  tribes. 


70  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Richard  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father, 
using  Killerby  bulls  upon  selected  market  cows, 
from  one  of  which,  purchased  at  Darlington,  he  got 
his  world-famous  Isabellas. 

In  1819  Thomas  Booth  removed  from  Killerby 
to  another  farm  he  owned  called  Warlaby,  giving 
over  Killerby  and  a  portion  of  the  herd  to  the 
management  of  his  other  son,  John  B.,  then  just 
married.  The  latter  became  one  of  the  leading 
breeders  and  exhibitors  of  his  time.  The  showyards 
of  Great  Britain  have  probably  not  since  their  day 
been  graced  by  more  wonderful  cattle  than  his 
never-to-be-forgotten  twins.  Necklace  and  Bracelet, 
a  queenly  pair  that  took  home  to  Killerby  as  tro- 
phies of  showyard  war  no  less  than  35  class  and 
championship  prizes  and  medals,  and  one  of  which 
finished  by  gaining  the  Smithfield  fat  stock  cham- 
pionship at  London  in  1 846  against  S7  competitors. 
Speaking  of  John  Booth,  "The  Druid"  in  "Saddle 
and  Sirloin"  says: 

"Mr.  Booth  was  a  very  fine-looking  man,  upward 
of  six  feet  and  fifteen  stone,  with  rare  hands  and  a 
fine  eye  to  hounds.  This  was  the  sport  he  loved  best, 
and  when  he  was  on  Jack  o'  Lantern  or  Rob  Roy  few 
men  could  cross  the  Bedale  country  with  him.  *  *  * 
He  was  full  of  joviality  and  good  stories  as  well  as 
the  neatest  of  practical  jokes.     His  friend  Wetherell 


FROM    SIRE    TO    SONS  71 


generally  had  his  guard  up;  but  when  he  received  a 
letter,  apparently  from  the  Earl  of  Tankerville,  say- 
ing that  he  was  to  lot  and  sell  the  wild  White  cattle 
of  Ghillingham,  he  puzzled  for  minutes  as  to  how  on 
earth  His  Lordship  ever  intended  to  catch  them  and 
bring  them  into  the  ring  before  he  guessed  the  joke 
and  its  author.  *  *  *  Booth  judged  a  good  deal  in 
England,  and  never  went  for  great  size  either  in  a 
bull  or  a  cow.  As  a  man  of  fine,  steady  judgment  in 
a  cattle  ring,  he  has  perhaps  never  had  an  equal.  He 
died  in  1857,  after  a  weary  twelve  months'  illness, 
in  his  seventieth  year,  at  Killerby,  and  a  memorial 
window  at  Gatterick,  where  he  rests,  was  put  up  by 
his  friends  and  neighbors  and  the  Shorthorn  world 
as  well." 

Richard  Booth  succeeded  to  his  father's  estate 
of  Warlaby  in  1835.  It  is  said  that  on  his  entrance 
at  Warlaby  he  did  not  at  first  contemplate  any 
special  effort  in  the  line  of  Shorthorn  breeding. 
Unlike  his  brother  John — who  had  the  traditional 
Yorkshire  love  for  the  excitements  of  the  race- 
course and  the  hunting  field — Richard  had  never 
been  given  to  active  pursuits,  and  "was  only  a  quiet 
gig-man"  from  the  early  days.  Happily  for  the 
breed,  however,  he  changed  his  mind  in  relation  to 
cattle-breeding  and  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life 
to  the  upbuilding  of  what  was  beyond  all  question 
the   most   remarkable   herd  of  its  time  and   one  of 


72  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


the   greatest   known  in  all  the  annals  of  live-stock 
history. 

To  recount  his  triumphs  as  a  cattle  breeder  is 
quite  beyond  the  scope  of  this  brief  sketch.  So 
long  as  men  shall  continue  to  admire  bloom  and 
beauty  in  fine  cattle,  and  shall  familiarize  them- 
selves with  the  records  of  the  past,  the  names  of 
Faith,  Hope  and  Charity,  Grown  Prince,  Isabella 
Buckingham,  Plum  Blossom  and  her  white  son 
Windsor,  Bride  Elect,  Soldier's  Bride,  Bride  of  the 
Vale — bought  by  Richard  Gibson  for  1,000  guineas 
— Vivandiere,  Queen  of  the  May,  Queen  of  the 
Ocean,  Lady  Fragrant  and  Gommander-in-Ghief  will 
call  to  mind  true  triumphs  in  animal  breeding. 
Richard  Booth  died  in  1864  at  the  ripe  old  age  of 
76,  and  the  annals  of  the  art  hold  no  record  of  a 
fairer  fame.  Shortly  before  his  death  an  offer  of 
£15,000  had  been  refused  for  the  herd,  then  re- 
duced to  thirty  head !  "He  sleeps  in  peace  beneath 
the  shade  of  the  old  gray  tower  of  Ainderby,  that 
looks  down  upon  the  scene  of  his  useful  and  quiet 
labors." 

Tom  G.  Booth,  whose  portrait  has  also  been 
accorded  Sanctum  Sanctorum  honors,  a  son  of  John 
of  Killerby,  succeeded  to  the  great  herd  at  Warlaby, 
and  with  the  cattle  left  by  his  uncle  Richard  car- 


FROM    SIRE    TO    SONS  75 


ried  the  work  successfully  forward  for  many  years. 
We  shall  meet  him  again  as  an  enthusiastic  bidder 
at  the  ToRR  dispersion  sale. 

The  Booths  adopted  a  system  of  leasing  their 
bulls  from  year  to  year,  instead  of  selling  them 
outright,  and  to  this  uncommon  practice  has  been 
attributed  much  of  their  success.  The  most  prom- 
ising were  sure  to  be  in  demand  from  responsible 
breeders,  and  those  that  turned  out  best  could  be 
recalled  for  home  service.  They  let  "the  other  fel- 
low" try  them  out  first.  So  thoroughly  were  the 
Killerby  and  Warlaby  herds  advertised  through  their 
repeated  victories  at  the  Yorkshire  and  the  national 
shows  that  competition  for  the  bulls  "on  hire"  was 
always  keen.  They  divided  with  Thomas  Bates 
and  his  disciples  the  best  patronage  of  England, 
and  as  high  as  £1,500  was  at  times  refused  for  a 
single  season's  use  of  a  bull  of  outstanding  merit  as 
a  sire.  For  solid  constructive  work  along  lines  of 
their  own  selection,  for  sustained  position,  even  into 
the  third  and  fourth  generations,  the  Booths  occupy 
a  unique  and  possibly  unrivaled  position  in  the  rec- 
ords of  the  development  of  improved  live  stock 
during  the  past  century. 


XII 
A  MASTER  OF  ARTS 

That  bright-eyed,  brilliant-minded  Northumbrian 
there,  with  the  curly  locks,  in  his  day  had  little 
patience  with  his  contemporaries.  He  bought  the 
only  cow  really  worth  having  in  all  England — accord- 
ing to  his  way  of  thinking — from  Charles  Colling 
in  1804,  and  from  her  bred  a  race  of  cattle  that 
not  only  gained  great  renown  during  the  lifetime  of 
their  creator,  but  after  his  death  became  the  subject 
of  almost  frenzied  international  financial  operations. 

It  is  now  three  and  twenty  years  since  I  stood 

at  the   grave   of   this   man,  Thomas   Bates,   in   the 

little   churchyard   at   Kirklevington,    near   Yarm,    in 

Yorkshire,  and  copied   into   a   note    book  from   the 

modest  monument  that  marks  his  last  resting  place 

this  inscription: 

This  Memorial 
of 

THOMAS  BATES 

of  Kirklevington 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  breeders  of 

Shorthorn  Cattle 

Is  Raised  by  a  Few  Friends  Who  Appreciate 

His  Labors  For  the  Improvement  of 

British  Stock  and  Respect  His  Character 

Born  21st  June,  1776— Died  26th  July,  1849 

74 


A   MASTER    OF   ARTS  75 


While  I  was  thus  engaged,  my  companion  upon 
that  memorable  pilgrimage  of  1892,  the  late  la- 
mented Senator  Harris,  returning  from  a  stroll 
deciphering  the  legends  borne  by  various  head- 
stones, repeated  solemnly  from  the  immortal  **Elegy": 
"Each  in  his  narrow  cell  forever  laid, 
The  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep." 

Bates  once  told  a  crowd  in  Edinburgh,  in  the 
course  of  one  of  those  after-dinner  speeches  which 
he  was  really  fond  of  making,  that  while  he  then 
lived  in  York  his  heart  was  really  in  his  native 
Northumberland,  where  he  had  resided  until  his  fifty- 
fifth  year.  It  was  about  this  date  —  1 830  —  of  his 
removal  from  Ridley  Hall  to  Kirklevington  that  the 
portrait  which  has  been  copied  for  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  Club  was  painted  by  Sir  William  Ross  of 
the  Royal  Academy. 

The  inspiring  story  of  how  this  man  sought  first 
to  educate  himself  thoroughly  in  the  arts  of  agri- 
culture and  constructive  cattle-breeding  before  un- 
dertaking the  task,  as  he  saw  it,  of  conserving  that 
which  was  best  for  the  benefit  of  succeeding  gener- 
ations, and  the  subsequent  success  achieved,  has 
been  the  theme  of  at  least  two  English  volumes. 
The  main  facts  have  been  summarized  by  the  writer 
hereof   in    a   book    prepared   for  American   readers 


76  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


some  years  ago.  Those  who  may  be  interested  in 
the  details  of  how  he  originated  his  famous  Dukes 
and  Duchesses  are  referred  to  these  works.  We  will 
therefore  merely  summarize. 

Bates  refused  to  follow  the  crowd  from  the  very 
first.  As  a  young  man  he  had  listened  to  the  ani- 
mated debates  of  the  Gollings,  the  elder  Booth, 
Maynard,  Mason,  and  the  rest  as  they  discussed 
at  the  "Black  Bull"  or  the  "King's  Head"  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  the  cattle  shown  in  the  streets  of 
Yarm  and  Darlington;  and  while  all  were  raving 
over  the  great  "Durham  Ox"  at  the  show  of  March, 
1799,  he  left  the  throng  to  study  quietly  a  heifer 
driven  in  from  Ketton  that  was  descended  from  the 
primal  Duchess  bought  by  Charles  Golling  in  1784. 
He  was  ever  the  student.  He  was  wont  to  spend 
the  week-ends  with  Golling  or  with  Mason  just 
preceding  the  Monday  market  days.  And  while  they 
talked  he  went  among  the  cattle  and  thought  out 
his  own  conclusions. 

In  1804  he  was  able  to  gratify  his  chief  ambi- 
tion. For  the  then  great  price  for  a  cow  of  100 
guineas  he  bought  from  Golling  a  four- year- old 
Duchess,  then  in  calf  to  Favorite,  and  in  due  course, 
from  that  union,  a  bull  called  Ketton  was  produced. 
This   Duchess    was    distinguished   for    her   mellow 


A    MASTER    OF    ARTS  77 


handling  quality,  undoubtedly  derived  from  Hubback, 
was  a  rich  and  persistent  milker,  and  when  fed  off 
at  17  years  of  age  made  a  fine  carcass  of  beef. 
Her  son  Ketton  developed  into  a  great  bull  and 
became  the  foundation  sire  of  the  herd.  At  Gol- 
ling's  dispersion  in  1810  a  granddaughter  of  this 
first  Duchess  was  bought  at  183  guineas.  As  usual 
at  that  date  Mr.  Bates  had  not  much  company  in 
his  judgment.  She  was  not  the  type  then  popular. 
The  crowd  cried  for  scale,  and,  then  as  now,  was 
hot  upon  the  trail  of  fat.  Bates  talked  "quality" 
and  ''touch"  as  indicating  aptitude  to  fatten  when 
desired,  but  few  there  were  to  listen  to  his  argu- 
ment. He  relied  upon  the  blood  of  Hubback  when 
not  violently  outcrossed,  secured  it  in  its  purest 
and  most  concentrated  form  in  these  Duchess  cows, 
and  went  his  way. 

Time  passed.  Ketton's  sons,  Ketton  2d  and  Ketton 
3d,  were  used  until  1820,  and  then  the  Duchess 
blood  was  once  more  doubled  in  through  The  Earl, 
called  by  Mr.  Bates  "the  hope  of  the  Shorthorns,'' 
a  bull  that  was  used  with  highly  gratifying  results, 
siring  among  other  remarkable  animals  a  bull  which 
Mr.  Bates  so  highly  regarded  that  he  named  him 
2d  Hubback.  In  him  all  that  was  best  in  the  once 
nameless  bull  of  a  preceding  sketch  reappeared,  and 


78  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


when  the  herd  in  1830  was  driven  across  country 
from  Ridley  Hall  to  Kirklevington,  the  cows,  some 
fifty  in  number,  "alike  as  beans,"  left  a  great  impres- 
sion upon  all  who  saw  them  pass.  Up  to  this  time, 
Mr.  Bates  did  little  or  nothing  in  a  public  way  to 
attract  attention  to  his  cattle.  Others  were  still 
breeding  largely  for  size.  The  hundred-weight  was 
their  chief  measure  of  success.  Refinement  and 
quality  were  not  yet  fully  appreciated.  Tallowy  hulks 
were  at  a  premium.  Heavy  bone  and  grossness 
generally  were  still  esteemed  in  a  land  where  no 
joint  or  baron  of  beef  was  too  ponderous  for  hearty 
Anglo-Saxon  squires  and  their  retainers.  With 
ill-concealed  contempt  for  the  commonly-accepted 
standards  of  his  day.  Bates,  almost  alone  in  all  that 
goodly  company  that  builded  up  the  breed  that  first 
stocked  our  American  feedlots  with  good  cattle, 
sought  out  the  Hubback  silkiness  of  hair  and  mellow- 
ness of  touch.  To  him  these  things  clearly  indicated 
easy-keeping,  quick-fattening  characteristics,  lightness 
of  offal  and  a  finer -fibered  flesh,  and  along  with 
this  he  never  lost  sight  of  dairy  power  as  early 
exemplified  in  Lady  Maynard.  The  week's  butter 
ready  for  market  was  to  him  a  source  of  pride  as 
well  as  profit.  Others  might  stuff"  their  favorite 
breeding   bulls   to   make  a  showyard   holiday.      He 


A    MASTER    OF    ARTS  79 


would  steer  his  undesirable  youngsters  and  make 
them  up  into  money-making  bullocks.  The  Booths 
and  others  might  sacrifice  their  best  cows  and  heifers 
upon  the  altar  of  Royal  championships.  He  would 
fatten  only  shy  breeders  or  barren  females.  And  so 
he  bided  his  time,  seeking,  as  he  himself  did  not 
hesitate  to  claim,  the  ultimate  good  of  a  dual-purpose 
type  that  should  prove  a  mine  of  wealth  to  the  farm- 
ers of  succeeding  generations,  rather  than  permit 
himself  to  be  lured  into  the  pursuit  of  the  guineas 
to  be  quickly  gathered  by  following  the  fashion  of 
his  time  in  cattle-breeding  circles.  He  applied  the 
Bakewell  methods  to  the  Hubback-Lady  Maynard 
blood,  and  through  his  Duchesses  gave  a  character 
to  the  English  and  American  herds  of  a  later  period, 
the  value  of  which  millions  of  pounds  sterling  could 
never  adequately  measure. 

Somewhere  about  1830  Bates  received  a  "check" 
in  his  progress  with  the  Duchesses.  Attractive  and 
uniform  as  were  the  fifty  cattle  he  drove  from  their 
Northumberland  home  into  the  upland  pastures  of 
Kirklevington,  he  had  run  up  against  that  great 
scourge  of  incestuous  matings  long-continued  —  a 
serious  loss  of  fecundity.  He  was  in  the  position 
of  a  gardener  who  had  produced  rare  and  in  every 
way    desirable    flowers    having    little     tendency    to 


80  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


reproduce  themselves.  This  was  a  real  menace, 
and  a  volume  might  be  written  on  his  troubles  in 
the  line  of  finding  suitable  outcrosses.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  he  learned  one  day  of  the  existence  of  a 
bull  called  Belvidere,  of  Robert  Golling's  old  Red 
Rose  or  Princess  strain,  the  foundation  dam  of  which 
carried  a  double  cross  of  Favorite  on  top  of  Hub- 
back,  he  of  the  Hurworth  lanes.  In  Belvidere  alone 
of  all  bulls  then  living  Mr.  Bates  believed  the 
original  blood  had  not  been  subsequently  tainted  by 
what  he  would  call  injudicious  crossing.  Here  then 
was  the  material  that  would  regenerate  the  Duch- 
esses. Believing,  therefore,  as  he  did,  that  this  was 
the  one  animal  then  alive  that  could  save  his  pets 
from  threatened  extinction  and  at  the  same  time 
give  them  still  greater  merit,  we  can  well  imagine 
with  what  impatience  he  urged  his  nag  forward 
that  22d  of  June,  18S1,  as  he  rode  over  to  John 
Stephenson's  beyond  the  Tees  at  Wolviston,  to  see 
"the  last  of  a  race  of  well-descended  Shorthorns." 

It  is  related  that  as  Mr.  Bates  entered  the  yard 
he  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  head  of  Belvidere  through 
an  opening  in  his  box,  and  at  that  one  glance  saw 
something  in  the  bull's  physiognomy  that  assured 
him  that  here  was  truly  what  he  long  had  sought. 
We   can   also  fancy  the   effort  required  to    conceal 


A    MASTER    OF    ARTS  81 


his  eagerness  from  John  Stephenson.  The  bull 
proved  a  big  one,  possessing  a  lot  of  "stretch," 
with  heavy  shoulders  and  a  commanding  presence. 
The  much-desired  masculinity  was  there,  and  what 
was  of  equal  importance,  unlike  so  many  of  the 
other  bulls  of  his  time,  he  was  ''soft  as  a  mole  to 
the  touch."  Asked  to  name  a  price,  the  owner  was 
modest  enough  to  place  it  at  £50.  The  very  next 
day  Belvidere  was  on  his  way  to  Kirklevington.  He 
was  the  product  of  the  mating  of  a  bull  called 
Waterloo  to  his  own  sister!  To  such  extremes  did 
these  old  worthies  go  in  their  adoption  of  Dishley 
methods.  The  bull  was  then  six  years  old,  and  as 
he  had  inherited  the  "hot-blood  temper"  of  his  sire, 
it  is  related  that  it  took  three  men  to  get  him  safely 
away  down  Sandy  Lane  on  his  way  to  his  great 
work  of  fructifying  the  seed  that  was  to  fill  not  only 
all  England,  but  America  as  well,  with  square-quar- 
tered, straight-lined,  stately  cattle.  Mr,  Bates,  with 
characteristic  assurance,  announced  in  advance  that 
he  would  now  "produce  Shorthorns  such  as  the  world 
has  never  seen,"  and  he  did. 

For  six  years  Belvidere  was  kept  steadily  in  ser- 
vice, being  succeeded  by  one  of  his  own  sons,  dropped 
by  Duchess  29th,  she  by  2d  Hubback  out  of  a  2d 
Hubback  dam!    Among  the  best  heifers  left  by  Bel- 


82  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


videre  was  Duchess  34th,  that  accidentally  broke  a 
leg  as  a  yearling.  The  accident  lamed  her  for  life, 
but  did  not  injure  her  for  breeding  purposes.  Bred 
back  to  her  own  sire — mark  this  terrific  inbreeding 
— she  gave  birth  to  Mr.  Bates'  bull  of  all  bulls,  the 
far-famed  champion  Duke  of  Northumberland,  of 
which  more  anon. 

•  By  this  time  the  superior  grace,  beauty  and 
quality  of  the  Bates  cattle  became  a  freely-admitted 
proposition,  and  it  was  at  this  interesting  juncture  in 
the  breed's  development  that  Felix  Renick  appeared 
upon  the  scene  —  that  is  Felix  out  there  in  the 
other  room  in  the  old  high  hat  of  the  vintage  of 
1 840.  He  and  his  colleagues,  representing  the  Ohio 
Importing  Company,  went  to  England  in  quest  of 
Shorthorns.  They  visited  the  leading  breeding  estab- 
lishments, including  that  of  Mr.  Bates,  who  told 
them  frankly  that  Belvidere's  sire,  old  Waterloo, 
then  in  his  sixteenth  year,  and  Norfolk,  a  2d  Hub- 
back  bull  owned  by  Mr.  Fawkes  of  Farnley  Hall,  were 
the  only  two  bulls  in  all  Britain,  aside  from  his 
own  Belvidere,  that  were  "in  the  least  likely  to  get 
good  stock";  a  remark  which  illustrates  the  truth 
that  Mr.  Bates  was  never  in  the  least  backward 
about  coming  forward  whenever  the  merits  of  his 
own  "breed"  were  being  weighed  in  comparison  with 


A    MASTER    OF   ARTS  83 


others.  He  sent  the  good  cow  Duchess  33d  to  be 
bred  to  Norfolk,  and  the  resulting  calf,  a  heifer 
named  Duchess  38th,  lived  to  become  the  maternal 
ancestress  of  the  entire  group  of  Dukes  and  Duch- 
esses which,  long  after  Mr.  Bates'  death,  in  the 
hands  of  Samuel  Thorne,  James  O.  Sheldon  and 
Walcott  &  Campbell,  all  of  New  York  State,  became 
the  subject  of  the  wildest  bidding  ever  registered  in 
the  cattle  business  in  Europe  or  America. 

The  use  of  Norfolk  and  other  good  bulls  derived 
from  the  Bates  herd  was  now  rapidly  spreading  the 
name  of  the  Kirklevington  cattle.  The  get  of  these 
strongly-bred  sires  possessed  that  finish  and  neatness 
for  which  their  creator  had  so  long  striven;  but  it 
was  not  until  the  establishment  of  the  Yorkshire 
show  in  1838  that  any  effort  was  made  to  secure 
competitive  honors.  In  that  year  the  young  Duke 
of  Northumberland,  already  mentioned,  was  sent  to 
York  along  with  some  of  Belvidere's  best  daughters, 
and  while  "The  Duke"  was  given  first  prize  in  the 
two-year-old  class,  he  was  beaten  for  the  champion- 
ship. Duchess  41st  headed  the  two-year-olds  and 
Duchess  42d  was  second  in  yearlings.  Mr.  Bates 
did  not  agree  with  many  of  these  ratings.  He  called 
Duchess  43d,  "The  Duke,"  and  Red  Rose  13th,  his 
three  best,  and  two  of  these  had  been  missed  entirely. 


84  AT    THE   SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK   YARD    INN 


In  this  connection  it  may  be  said  that  Mr.  Bates 
was  a  great  advocate  of  showing  live  stock  by 
family  groups.  Isolated  champions  counted  for  little 
in  his  estimation.  It  was  not,  with  him,  so  much  a 
question  of  what  a  skillful  fitter  could  do  with  a 
single  animal  that  happened  to  be  blessed  with  a 
strong  constitution  and  a  good  digestion,  but  rather 
what  results  might  be  achieved,  en  bloc,  through 
consanguinity.  In  this  he  was  undoubtedly  contend- 
ing for  a  sound  principle,  and  in  all  cur  modern 
shows  it  would  be  well  if  the  views  of  this  prince 
of  British  stock  breeders  upon  this  important  point 
might  find  more  general  adoption. 

The  English  Royal  Show  was  founded  in  1839 
and  held  its  first  meeting  at  the  old  university  town 
of  Oxford.  Mr.  Bates,  by  the  way,  often  expressed 
regret  that  at  the  two  great  national  seats  of  learn- 
ing— Oxford  and  Cambridge — there  were  no  profes- 
sorships in  agriculture.  He  urged  at  all  times  the 
study  of  soils,  chemistry,  and  the  little-known  laws 
of  heredity  in  animal  life,  upon  all  who  would  listen. 
He  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  wipe  out  those 
Yorkshire  decisions  by  an  appeal  to  the  higher  tri- 
bunal now  set  up,  so  we  find  him  at  Oxford  in  1839 
with  *'The  Duke,"  now  three  years  old,  Duchess 
42d,  Duchess  43d  and  a  heifer  of  a  newly-acquired 


A    MASTER    OF    ARTS  85 


family,  sired  by  one  of  his  Duchess  bulls.  Each 
headed  its  class,  and  the  unnamed  heifer  in  honor 
of  the  victory  was  called  the  Oxford  Premium  Cow 
and  became  the  ancestress  of  the  Duchess-crossed 
family  which,  under  the  name  of  Oxfords,  in  the 
great  days  to  follow,  was  destined  to  rank  second 
only  to  the  Duchesses  themselves  in  the  estimation 
of  the  breeders  of  two  continents.  Daniel  Webster, 
the  American  orator  and  statesman,  was  present  at 
this  initial  Royal  Show,  and  made  an  address  at  an 
elaborate  dinner  given  in  the  quadrangle  of  Queen's 
College,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said,  speaking  of 
Mr.  Bates'  great  success:  "From  his  stock,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ohio  and  its  tributary  streams,  I  have 
seen  fine  animals  which  have  been  bred  from  his 
herd  in  Yorkshire  and  Northumberland."  This  was, 
of  course,  a  reference  to  the  animals  imported  by 
the  Ohio  Company  under  the  leadership  of  Felix 
Renick,  and  reveals  an  interest  in  affairs  agricul- 
tural, and  in  the  farming  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  that 
probably  surprised  Mr.  Bates  quite  as  much  as  it 
may  interest  present-day  Americans. 

No  higher  proof  of  the  superlative  excellence  of 
these  products  of  the  genius  of  Thomas  Bates  as  a 
cattle  breeder  can  be  adduced  than  this  sweeping 
victory  over  all  England  at  the  first  national  contest 


86  AT   THE   SIGN   OF   THE   STOCK   YARD    INN 


for  honors.  George  Drewry,  for  long  years  after- 
wards herd  manager  for  His  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire  at  Holker  Hall,  writing  of  these  Oxford 
winners  after  the  lapse  of  fifty  years,  said:  **The 
two  things  that  I  remember  best  at  Oxford  were 
the  Duke  of  Northumberland  and  Duchess  43d. 
These  I  still  think  were  the  best  two  Shorthorns 
that  I  ever  saw." 

The  sage  of  Kirklevington  had  now  reached  the 
age  of  three  score  years  and  five,  and  having  vindi- 
cated, as  he  believed,  the  correctness  of  his  prac- 
tices, was  not  disposed  to  enter  regularly  in  the 
showyard  battles  of  the  time.  The  Booths  were 
the  ruling  power  at  the  ringside  of  those  days,  with 
cattle  of  tremendous  substance  and  wealth  of  flesh, 
but  lacking  the  elegance  and  dairy  propensity  of 
Mr.  Bates'  stock.  John  Booth  of  Killerby  bantered 
Bates  upon  one  occasion  upon  his  lack  of  courage 
in  not  entering  regularly  the  lists,  and  challenged 
him  to  show  a  cow  at  the  Royal  of  1842,  held  at 
the  beautiful  and  ancient  Yorkshire  capital.  This 
was  accepted,  and  the  broken-legged  Duchess  S4th, 
mother  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  was  driven 
across  country  nearly  forty  miles  to  meet  the  re- 
nowned Necklace.  Although  ten  years  old  and  taken 
direct  from  pasture,  she  turned  the  trick.     Many  of 


A   MASTER   OF   ARTS  87 


the  leading  breeders  of  the  day  were  present  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  say  to  Mr.  Booth  that  they  thought 
his  wonderful  cow  fairly  beaten.  "Then  I  am  satis- 
fied," rejoined  that  good  sportsman,  and  the  great 
rival  breeders  remained  the  best  of  friends. 

The  Duke  of  Northumberland  was  the  crowning 
triumph  of  Mr.  Bates'  career.  It  was  this  bull  and 
his  dam,  Duchess  S4th,  to  which  the  veteran  breeder 
alluded  in  a  letter  he  addressed  to  a  publishing  house 
about  to  produce  pictures  of  these  animals,  when 
he  made  the  following  characteristic,  caustic,  yet 
clever,  comment:  **I  do  not  expect  any  artist  can 
do  them  justice.  They  must  be  seen,  and  the  more 
they  are  examined  the  more  their  excellence  will 
appear  to  a  true  connoisseur;  but  there  are  few 
good  judges.  Hundreds  of  men  may  be  found  to 
make  a  Prime  Minister  for  one  fit  to  judge  of  the 
real  merits  of  Shorthorns." 

Throughout  almost  his  entire  career  Bates  quar- 
reled with  his  contemporaries  as  to  their  methods 
and  standards,  but  the  time  had  nearly  arrived  when 
his  life-work  was  to  be  completed,  and  the  blood  of 
the  Dukes  and  Duchesses  started  on  its  great  career 
of  modifying  the  type  of  the  cattle  of  two  continents. 
He  died  in  1849,  and  in  May,  1850,  his  herd  was 
dispersed  at  auction.    The  times  were  not  propitious 


88  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


for  the  making  of  high  prices.  The  impressiveness 
and  rare  refining  powers  of  the  bulls  of  Kirklevington 
breeding  had  not  yet  overcome  the  great  vogue  of 
the  BooTH-bred  sires.  The  master  had  never  married, 
and  had  no  near  kin  to  inherit  or  take  an  interest 
in  his  great  legacy  to  posterity.  A  decade  previously 
he  could  have  taken  £400  each  for  his  Oxford  prize 
females,  or  named  his  own  price  for  "The  Duke." 
British  agricultural  values  of  all  kinds  were  now 
profoundly  depressed.  The  best  price  made  at  the 
sale  was  £200,  paid  by  Earl  Ducie  for  the  4th 
Duke  of  York,  which  his  breeder  had  valued  at 
£1,000.  Several  Americans  were  represented,  in- 
cluding Gol.  L.  G.  Morris  and  N.  J.  Becar  of  New 
York.  These  gentlemen  took  three  of  the  Oxford 
females;  but  the  Duchess  tribe  remained  intact  for 
the  time  being  in  England,  fetching  the  poor  average 
of  £116  each  for  the  fourteen  sold.  Lord  Ducie 
was  the  leading  buyer,  and  with  the  transfer  of 
these  purchases  to  his  estate  at  Tortworth  Court, 
in  Gloucestershire,  the  most  dramatic  story  in  bovine 
records  has  its  real  beginning. 


XIII 

ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES 

Robert  Aitchison  Alexander  probably  had  a 
larger  hand  in  molding  the  character  of  our  west- 
ern cattle  stock,  as  seen  during  the  early  days  of 
the  upbuilding  of  all  our  great  central  markets,  than 
any  other  one  individual  identified  with  our  agricul- 
ture throughout  the  great  constructive  period.  I 
doubt  if  many  bulls  ever  went  upon  the  western 
range  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  Herefords  that  did 
not  carry  the  Bates  Duchess  blood.  Practically 
every  important  cornbelt  herd  established  during 
the  rapid  extension  of  good  breeding  that  set  in 
during  the  "Seventies"  had  as  its  dominant  factor 
the  blood  of  imported  Duke  of  Airdrie  or  his  sons 
and  grandsons.  Substantially  all  of  the  best  cattle 
feeders  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa  and  Mis- 
souri were  indebted  to  the  Bates  Duchess  blood 
for  the  squareness  and  the  levelness  of  the  big 
frames  that  distinguished  the  export  bullocks  of 
Gillett's  and  Moninger's  time.  All  of  which  is  but 
another  way  of  saying  that  Kentucky  set  the  stand- 
ard and  supplied  the  seed  for  these  widespread 
early  improvements,  and  that  the  most  impressive 
sire  ever  used  in  the  "Blue  Grass"  herds  was  this 
same  Bates  Duchess  bull  called  —  in  honor  of  the 

89 


90  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


ancestral  Alexander  acres  in  Scotland  —  the  Duke 
of  Airdrie.  Through  his  successful  use  at  Wood- 
burn  and  his  extensive  patronage  at  the  hands  of 
the  Renicks,  Bedfords,  Vanmeters,  Warfields,  Dun- 
cans and  all  the  rest  of  that  great  coterie  of  cattle- 
men that  once  ruled  in  Central  Kentucky,  the  old 
Duke  of  Airdrie  set  at  an  early  date  the  seal  of 
Thomas  Bates  indelibly  upon  our  American  cattle 
of  the  Shorthorn  type — grades  as  well  as  purebreds. 
By  that  is  meant  that  so  prepotent  did  the  Duke 
of  Airdrie  prove,  so  wonderfully  did  he  impress  his 
level  conformation  and  finish  upon  his  get  even  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generations,  that  his  blood  not 
only  actually  coursed  in  the  veins  of  practically  all 
our  best  western  cattle  at  one  time,  but  the  type 
was  so  well  liked,  the  transformation  in  the  case  of 
coarse  or  ill-bred  cattle  was  so  extraordinary  and 
immediate,  that  all  bulls  that  carried  the  Duchess 
blood  were  in  demand  at  once  and  vastly  in  excess 
of  the  supply.  To  this  fact  may  be  clearly  attrib- 
uted the  inception  of  that  remarkable  chapter  in 
international  agricultural  history  known  as  the  great 
"Bates  Shorthorn  boom." 

Question  not,  therefore,  ye  who  saunter  through 
the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  galleries,  the  right  of 
Robert   Alexander    to    his    place    of    honor.    The 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES      91 


portrait  is  a  copy  of  one  painted  by  an  English 
artist  of  renown  in  London  on  the  occasion  of  one 
of  Mr.  Alexander's  trips  to  the  other  side  while 
still  a  comparatively  young  man.  And  before  we 
proceed  to  sketch  the  Duchess  furore  let  us  add 
that  Mr.  Alexander  was  by  odds  the  most  generous 
patron  of  improved  animal  breeding  of  his  time  in 
the  United  States,  his  ample  fortune  and  his  beau- 
tiful Kentucky  estate  being  for  years  a  Mecca  for  all 
who  sought  valuable  materials  for  carrying  forward 
advanced  work  with  Shorthorn  and  Jersey  cattle, 
Thoroughbred  and  Trotting  horses,  or  Southdown 
sheep.  The  great  four-mile  racer  Lexington  was 
one  of  the  particular  joys  of  his  long  and  useful  life. 
Strangely  enough,  Duchess  54th — the  ancestress 
of  the  sensationally  -  successful  Airdrie  Duchess 
family  to  which  must  be  credited  the  virtual  inau- 
guration of  the  craze  for  Bates  Shorthorn  blood 
throughout  the  United  States,  the  progress  of  which 
movement  soon  stirred  English  cattle  breeding  to 
its  very  depths — had  been  outcrossed  with  the  very 
last  blood  that  Thomas  Bates  would  have  selected 
for  such  a  purpose,  that  of  John  Booth's  Bracelet, 
twin  sister  of  Necklace,  that  the  dam  of  the  Duke 
of  Northumberland  had  defeated  at  York  as  already 
related.     And   here    our    story   impinges    upon    the 


92  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Kirklevington  dispersion  of  1850,  with  which  our 
last  sketch  was  concluded.  Upon  that  occasion 
Duchess  54th  was  bought  by  Mr.  Eastwood  for 
£94  10s.  for  Col.  Towneley.  The  latter  was  a  man 
of  catholic  tastes  and  wealth,  wedded  to  no  partic- 
ular line  of  procedure,  a  lover  of  good  cattle,  with 
an  inquiring  and  receptive  mind.  To  him  the  Short- 
horn world  was  afterwards  indebted  for  the  won- 
derful Towneley  Butterflies.  Sacrilegious  as  it  would 
doubtless  have  appeared  to  Thomas  Bates,  Duchess 
54th  was  bulled  by  the  white  Lord  George,  son  of 
Bracelet's  daughter  Birthday.  A  bull  calf  named  2d 
Duke  of  Athol  was  the  fruit  of  this  union  of  the 
two  great  rival  houses,  and  while  engaged  in  buy- 
ing a  large  selection  of  well-bred  cattle  from  the 
best  sources  for  shipment  to  Kentucky,  Mr.  Alex- 
ander saw  and  liked  and  bought  the  young  Duke 
bearing  this  bar  sinister  upon  his  Bates  escutcheon, 
and  also  his  sister  of  the  pure  blood,  a  daughter  of 
Duchess  54th,  called  Duchess  of  Athol.  This  was 
in  1853.  The  Duke  was  then  a  yearling  and  the 
Duchess  a  two-year-old,  the  sum  of  500  guineas 
being  given  for  the  pair,  a  fact  which  indicates  how 
rapidly  values  had  risen  since  the  dispersion  sale  a 
few  years  previously,  and  incidentally  proving  once 
again  the  old,  old  proposition  that  the  time  to  buy 


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ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES      93 


good  property  is  when  nobody  else  seems  to  want 
it  even  at  less  than  its  obvious  intrinsic  value.  To 
a  service  of  her  half-brother  the  2d  Duke  of  Athol 
or  of  a  bull  called  Valiant — the  exact  fact  as  to 
the  coupling  never  having  been  established — the 
young  Duchess  of  Athol  produced  a  heifer  which 
Mr.  Alexander  named  Duchess  of  Airdrie. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact  that 
Lord  Ducie  was  the  principal  buyer  of  the  Dukes 
and  Duchesses  at  the  Bates  dispersion.  His  Lord- 
ship was  at  this  time,  next  to  Earl  Spencer, 
probably  the  closest  student  of  cattle-breeding 
problems  among  all  the  noblemen  of  his  time  in 
England.  He  knew  of  the  Bates  contention  as  to 
the  "exclusive"  breeding  of  the  Duchesses,  and 
probably  sensing  a  good  speculation  in  them,  se- 
cured most  of  them  at  the  bargain  prices  prevailing 
at  the  time  they  were  disposed  of  by  Mr.  Bates' 
executors.  He  had  an  idea,  however,  that  they 
needed  an  infusion  of  fresh  blood,  and  when  Duch- 
ess 55th  was  knocked  down  to  his  bidding  at  110 
guineas  he  remarked  that  he  would  send  her  to 
Earl  Spencer's  to  be  bulled  by  his  MASON-bred 
Usurer,  "to  improve  her  shoulders."  This  he  sub- 
sequently did,  the  cow  producing  a  white  heifer  to 
the   service,  which  he  did  not  like;   whereupon  he 


94  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


is  said  to  have  affirmed  that  "Bates  was  right  and 
I  am  wrong.  I  will  never  cross  them  again  with 
anything  but  themselves."  Just  the  same,  this  out- 
crossed  white  heifer  lived  to  found  the  family 
known  afterwards  in  England  as  Grand  Duchesses, 
and  in  the  course  of  time,  when  the  pure  blood 
had  become  wholly  extinct,  this  particular  English 
branch  of  the  fine  old  tribe  and  the  American 
Duchesses  of  Airdrie,  carrying  the  Lord  George 
(Booth)  cross,  through  Mr.  Alexander's  2d  Duke 
of  Athol,  alone  remained  to  perpetuate  the  ancient 
name. 

DuciE  had  been  in  feeble  health  for  some  little 
time  prior  to  his  acquisition  of  the  cream  of  the 
Kirklevington  herd,  and  did  not  live  long  enough  to 
carry  out  his  plans.  He  was  a  crafty  individual 
and  from  all  accounts  not  overscrupulous  in  shap- 
ing his  plans  to  practically  "corner"  the  Duchess 
blood.  The  bulls  of  that  ilk,  as  well  as  the  females, 
were  not  numerous.  The  tribe  had  been  so  closely 
bred  that  they  were  for  the  most  part  shy  pro- 
ducers. In  fact,  the  larger  part  of  the  herd  during 
its  later  years  consisted  of  tribes  of  other  origin 
crossed  with  the  Duke  and  Oxford  bulls,  chief 
among  these  in  point  of  numbers  being  the  Wild 
Eyes   and  Waterloos.     One   of  the   last  sires  used 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES      96 


by  Mr.  Bates  had  been  the  3d  Duke  of  York, 
which  had  been  sold  privately  before  the  closing- 
out  auction  was  held.  Lord  Ducie  sent  his  agent 
to  buy  him,  with  instructions  to  send  him  to  the 
butcher,  and  the  bull  was  actually  slaughtered  at 
Tortworth.  His  Lordship  supposed  that  this  left 
him  in  possession  of  the  only  bull  of  the  line  then 
living;  but  upon  being  told  that  Mr.  Tanqueray,  a 
well-known  breeder  of  that  period,  had  recently 
come  into  the  ownership  of  the  6th  Duke  of  York, 

he  is  credited   with   testily  exclaiming,  "D that 

bull;  I  had  lost  sight  of  him!"  However  in  the 
language  of  "Bobby"  Burns,  "the  best  laid  schemes 
o'  mice  and  men  gang  aft  agley."  The  old  Earl 
died  and  his  herd  was  dispersed  in  1853,  and  up- 
on that  occasion  Great  Britain  and  America  clashed 
for  the  first  time  for  the  possession  of  the  Duchess 
blood.  Becar  and  Gol.  Morris,  who  had  secured 
three  of  the  Oxford  females  at  Kirklevington's 
dispersion,  were  on  hand  now  to  contest  for 
Duchesses,  and  in  this  were  reinforced  by  Jonathan 
Thorne,  also  of  New  York  City,  George  Vail  of 
Troy,  and  Gen.  Gadwallader  of  Philadelphia.  Their 
English  competitors  were  Tanqueray,  Gol.  Gunter, 
Lord  Feversham  and  the  Earl  of  Burlington. 
The  eight  Duchesses  fetched  an  average  of  £401 


96  AT   THE   SIGN   OF   THE   STOCK    YARD    INN 


each,  Becar  and  Morris  jointly  taking  Duchess  66th 
at  £735,  Mr.  Thorne  securing  the  59th,  64th  and 
68th  at  £367,  £630  and  £420  respectively.  Becar 
and  Morris  got  Duke  of  Gloster  at  £682  and  Vail 
&  Gadwallader  bought  4th  Duke  of  York  at  £525, 
with  the  understanding  that  he  was  to  be  left  in 
England  one  year  before  shipment  to  the  States. 
Mr.  Alexander  then  arranged  to  have  his  Duchess 
of  Athol  bred  to  the  Duke  of  Gloster,  and  the  prod- 
uce of  that  union  was  the  Duke  of  Airdrie,  that 
became,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  the  favorite 
sire  of  his  time  in  the  Middle  Western  States.  He 
was  brought  over  to  Woodburn  in  1855. 

In  1858  Richard  Gibson,  who  figures  later  in 
these  notes,  made  his  first  visit  to  a  Royal  Show  in 
the  land  of  his  nativity.  By  that  time  a  determined 
and  wealthy  constituency  had  got  behind  the  Bates 
Shorthorn  cult,  and  Lord  Feversham  sent  one  of 
his  Ducie  purchases,  the  grand  bull  5th  Duke  of 
Oxford,  to  the  national  competition,  which  was  held 
that  year  at  Chester.  This  lineal  Duchess-crossed 
descendant  of  the  Oxford  Premium  Cow  headed  a 
strong  class  of  aged  bulls,  and  Gibson  never  quite 
forgot  the  impression  that  lordly  beast  made  upon 
him  at  that  time.  "The  way  he  moved  and  the  air 
of  conscious  superiority  he  assumed  I   have   never 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES      97 


forgotten."  Such  was  Richard's  comment  made  to 
the  writer  in  speaking  of  this  old-time  champion 
many  years  ago. 

In  1861  GuNTER — who  was  now  the  sole  possessor 
of  Duchess  females  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic 
— took  Duchess  77th  out  to  the  Leeds  Royal  and 
beat  Richard  Booth's  and  Lady  Pigot's  entries. 
The  Lady  was  one  of  several  capable  women  who 
had  espoused  Shorthorn  breeding  enthusiastically, 
flying  the  flag  of  Warlaby. 

During  this  same  year  Samuel  Thorne,  who  had 
in  the  meantime  come  into  possession  of  Thornedale, 
the  family  seat  near  Millbrook,  Dutchess  Co.,  N.  Y., 
while  on  a  trip  to  England  was  besieged  by  British 
breeders,  who  were  now  beginning  to  realize  what 
had  been  lost  to  America,  to  return  some  of  the 
blood  to  the  other  side.  This  was  before  the  Duke 
of  Airdrie  had  made  his  great  hit  in  western  herds, 
and  Mr.  Thorne  consented  to  humor  his  English 
friends,  sending  over  for  sale  three  Dukes  and  a 
bull  and  a  heifer  of  the  Oxford  tribe,  bred  from 
Jonathan  Thorne's  purchases  at  the  Ducie  sale  of 
1863.  These  were  quickly  picked  up  soon  after 
being  landed  at  Liverpool  at  from  300  to  400  guineas 
each.  One  of  these,  the  4th  Duke  of  Thornedale, 
finally  went  to  Gol.  Gunter  at  Wetherby,  where  he 


AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


was  kept  in  service  until  ten  years  old,  enjoying, 
along  with  the  T'th  Duke  of  York,  the  celebrity 
which  attached  to  the  pair  of  being  the  only  "pure 
Duke"  bulls  in  England. 

In  response  to  a  similar  call  from  Britain  Mr. 
Alexander  sent  the  fine  bull  2d  Duke  of  Airdrie 
and  the  5th  and  6th  Dukes  of  that  line  to  the 
mother  country,  all  outcrossed  with  the  blood  of 
the  Booths.  The  2d  Duke  had  been  a  winner  of 
a  $1,000  championship  at  St.  Louis  prior  to  his 
exportation. 

Meanwhile,  the  demand  for  the  Bates  cattle  from 
the  nobility  and  gentry  of  England  grew  with  each 
succeeding  year.  It  had  to  be  met  mainly  by  Duke 
and  Oxford-topped  cattle  of  various  sound  old  British 
strains,  for  there  were  not  Dukes  and  Duchesses 
enough  for  all.  The  outcrossed  Grand  Duchesses 
already  mentioned  now  came  into  their  own.  The 
females,  were  not  numerous,  and  had  been  held 
together,  first  by  Mr.  Bolden  of  Lancashire,  and 
subsequently  by  Messrs.  Atherton  and  Hegan,  the 
latter  paying  the  former  the  sum  of  £5,000  for 
nine  cows  and  four  bulls.  Three  of  the  females 
proved  barren,  and  at  Mr.  Hegan's  death  in  1865 
the  twelve  cows  and  heifers  and  five  bulls  of  this 
branch  were  auctioned  off  at  Willis'  rooms  in  the 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES      99 


city  of  London.  This  event  was  unique  in  the 
annals  of  cattle-breeding  from  the  fact  that  the 
animals  were  not  before  the  bidders  when  sold. 
They  had,  of  course,  been  seen  privately  at  Daw- 
pool  before  the  sale.  Lord  Feversham  presided,  and 
there  was  a  brilliant  assemblage  of  peers,  M.  P.'s 
and  notables  generally.  The  females  were  offered 
in  "blocks  of  three,"  and  the  entire  lot  was  taken 
by  E.  L.  Betts  of  Preston  Hall  in  Kent,  at  1,900 
guineas  for  the  first  trio  offered,  1,300  guineas  for 
the  second,  1,800  guineas  for  the  third  and  1,200 
for  the  fourth.  The  bull  Imperial  Oxford,  that  was 
then  being  used  upon  them,  went  with  them  at  an 
extra  price  of  450  guineas.  The  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire took  Grand  Duke  10th  at  600  guineas.  Two 
years  later  Mr.  Betts  resold  the  cattle.  They  had 
not  been  prolific;  but  the  thirteen  head  offered 
brought  the  fine  average  of  432  guineas  each,  the 
"plum"  of  the  lot,  the  celebrated  Grand  Duchess 
IT'th,  bringing  800  guineas  from  Gapt.  R.  E.  Oliver 
of  Sholebroke  Lodge. 

By  this  time  events  were  shaping  themselves 
for  still  greater  activities  in  America.  In  1866  J.O. 
Sheldon  of  White  Spring  Farm,  Geneva,  N.Y.,  bought 
the  entire  Thornedale  herd  of  Duchesses,  Oxfords, 
etc.,  at  a  reported  price  of  $40,000,  thus  acquiring 


100  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


a  monopoly  of  the  "pure"  blood  this  side  the  At- 
lantic. The  following  year  Sheldon  exported  two 
Dukes  and  a  Duchess  heifer  to  England,  along  with 
some  of  the  Oxfords.  They  were  sold,  after  inspec- 
tion, by  Strafford  by  candlelight  in  the  cafe  of 
the  Castle  Hotel  at  Windsor,  where  Mr.  Leney,  of 
Kent,  gave  700  guineas  for  the  white  7th  Duchess 
of  Geneva.  For  the  entire  shipment  about  $20,000 
was  realized.  In  1869  Mr.  Sheldon  parted  with 
the  two-year-old  heifer  11th  Duchess  of  Geneva, 
the  yearling  14th  Duchess  and  the  bull  calf  9th 
Duke  of  Geneva  for  a  round  $12,500  to  E.  H. 
Cheney  of  Gaddesby  Hall,  selling  also  about  the 
same  time  the  8th  Duke,  a  bull  calf,  for  export  at 
$4,000. 

By  1870  the  Bates  tribes  proper  were  firmly 
held  by  powerful  interests  on  both  sides  the  Atlan- 
tic; but  the  speculative  spirit  engendered  by  the 
Thorne  and  Sheldon  exportations  and  by  their  sales 
of  young  Dukes  at  prices  ranging  from  $3,000  to 
$6,000  each,  to  various  American  breeders,  was  not 
only  beginning  to  tell  against  the  character  of  the 
cattle  themselves,  but  bid  fair  to  reach  a  dangerous 
height.  The  entire  Sheldon  herd  was  acquired  by 
Walcott  &  Campbell  of  the  New  York  Mills,  at 
Utica,  at  around  $100,000,  and  Richard  Gibson  was 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES     101 


placed  in  charge.  The  Duchesses  had  cost  them 
about  $5,500  each.  Hon.  M.  H.  Cochrane  of  Hill- 
hurst,  Canada,  had  brought  out  three  of  the  Gunter 
Duchesses  from  England,  two  at  $5,000  each  and 
one  at  $7,500.  One  of  the  former  he  sold  to  Col. 
William  S.  King  of  Minneapolis  for  the  then  un- 
heard-of price  of  $12,0001  Later  on  she  was  bought 
back  and  resold  for  return  to  England.  In  April, 
1871,  Senator  Cochrane  exported  the  bull  Duke  of 
Hillhurst  to  Col.  Kingscote  at  $4,000.  He  was 
sired  by  the  14th  Duke  of  Thornedale,  a  bull  that 
afterwards  sold  in  Kentucky  for  $17,900,  and  in 
England  the  Hillhurst  Duke  begot  the  world-famous 
Duke  of  Connaught,  for  which  Lord  Fitzhardinge 
of  Berkeley  Castle  paid  the  record  price  of  4,600 
guineas!  In  November,  1871,  Cochrane  sold  to 
Earl  Dunmore  two  Duchess  heifers  for  $12,500. 
In  1872  Richard  Gibson  bought  from  Mr.  Alexander 
three  Airdrie  Duchesses  for  export  to  E.  H.  Cheney. 
And  so  these  ''days  of  most  stupendous  follies,"  as 
Col.  King  was  wont  to  put  it  after  all  was  over, 
proceeded  to  their  international  climax  of  1873. 
Dunmore  opened  the  ball  that  year  with  a  purchase 
of  ten  head  of  Bates  cattle  from  Hillhurst  at 
$50,0001  And  in  the  autumn  came  the  deluge  — 
the    New   York    Mills   dispersion.     This   is   not  the 


102  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


place  to  write  in  detail  of  that  most  extraordinary 
event,  when  England  and  America  went  jointly  mad. 
The  "pure"  Duchess  breed  was  now  extinct  in  the 
land  of  its  birth,  and  the  fast  and  furious  fighting  for 
their  possession  did  not  end  until  the  sum  of  $40,600 
had  been  bid  for  the  8th  Duchess  of  Geneva! 

The  sun  went  down  that  September  afternoon 
upon  an  average  of  $18,740  for  eleven  Duchesses 
and  three  Dukes,  the  top  figures  being  paid  by  Eng- 
lish bidders.  Earl  Bective  took  the  10th  Duchess 
of  Geneva  at  $35,000,  and  Lord  Skelmersdale 
gave  $30,600  for  1st  Duchess  of  Oneida.  Mr. 
Alexander  led  the  American  contingent  with 
$2T,000  for  the  10th  Duchess  of  Oneida.  It  after- 
wards developed  that  the  agent  who  represented 
Mr.  R.  Pavin  Davies,  of  England,  in  the  tense  ex- 
citement of  the  day  had  exceeded  his  instructions 
in  making  the  $40,600  bid,  and  the  cow  was  after- 
wards taken  by  Col.  L.  G.  Morris  at  the  price  made 
by  her  daughter,  $30,600. 

What  was  the  harvest?  For  the  most  part  dis- 
appointment: deaths,  abortions  and  failures  to  breed. 
The  $36,000  cow  became  in  England  the  mother 
of  a  splendid  sire,  the  same  Duke  of  Underley 
whose  head  in  terra  cotta  relief  may  be  seen  any 
day,  by  those  curiously  inclined,  in  one  of  the  panels 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES     103 


already  alluded  to  in  this  volume  as  ornamenting 
the  entrance  to  the  National  Live  Stock  Bank  at 
the  Chicago  Yards. 

In  1875  Mr.  Alexander  sold  the  good  bull  24th 
Duke  of  Airdrie  and  the  20th  Duchess  of  Airdrie  to 
George  Fox,  of  England,  at  $12,000  and  $18,000 
respectively.  About  the  same  time  Cheney  paid  the 
proprietor  of  Woodburn  $17,000  for  the  16th  Duch- 
ess of  Airdrie.  Avery  &  Murphy  of  Port  Huron 
gave  Cochrane  $18,000  for  Airdrie  Duchess  5th. 
An  interesting  incident  also  of  this  period  was  the 
attempt  to  push  into  the  limelight  the  Princess  tribe, 
because  of  Belvidere's  successful  use  nearly  fifty 
years  previously  at  Kirklevington.  A.  W.  Griswold 
of  Vermont  sold  five  of  these  in  1875  for  $18,000. 
Six  head  were  subsequently  sold  in  Kentucky  for 
$15,725.  The  English  took  a  hand  in  this,  and 
several  were  exported  at  long  prices.  The  Renick 
Roses  of  Sharon  also  caught  the  swell  of  this  unpar- 
alleled speculation,  and  several  of  them  were  exported 
at  long  figures.  At  Lord  Dunmore's  memorable  sale 
of  Aug.  25,  1875,  where  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
fetched  4,500  guineas,  the  RENicK-bred  Red  Rose 
of  the  Isles  topped  the  females  at  $11,650  from 
Earl  Bective.  On  this  great  occasion  thirty-nine 
head  sold  for  $149,335,  an  average  of  $3,829! 


104  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


We  might  continue  this  narration  on  down 
through  the  decade  following;  but,  after  the  figures 
already  quoted,  sales  of  Duchess  cattle  at  from 
$10,000  to  $20,000  each  begin  to  lose  their  in- 
terest. They  were  still  selling  at  those  figures  at 
intervals  after  the  writer  began  his  work.  As  a 
boy  in  18^6  I  saw  Albert  Grane  pay  $23,600  and 
$21,000  respectively  for  Airdrie  Duchesses  2d  and 
3d  at  Dexter  Park.  In  1S77  I  saw  the  22d 
Duchess  of  Airdrie  knocked  off  by  Gol.  Judy  for 
$15,000,  and  wondered  why.  I  figured  later  that 
the  descendants  of  the  old  10th  Duchess  of  Airdrie 
had  brought  in  round  figures  the  great  sum  of 
$300,000! 

In  1882  Senator  Cochrane  sold  his  Hillhurst 
Duchesses  at  Dexter  Park,  including  the  famous 
old  Woodburn-bred  10th  Duchess  of  Airdrie  and  a 
number  of  her  descendants,  receiving  an  average  of 
$2,080  on  23  head,  belonging  to  various  Bates 
families.  The  late  John  Hope,  superintendent  of  the 
Bow  Park  herd  at  Brantford,  Ont., — at  which  estab- 
lishment John  Clay  made  his  start  in  business  in 
America — bought  four  Duchesses  here  at  prices  rang- 
ing from  $4,^00  to  $8,500.  Ghas.  A.  Degraff  of 
Lake  Elysian  Farm,  Janesville,  Minn.,  gave  $3,025 
upon  this  occasion  for  the  8th  Duke  of  Hillhurst. 


ROMANCE  OF  THE  DUKES  AND  DUCHESSES     105 


Mr.  Hope  was  for  many  years  a  prominent  figure 
in  the  American  shows  and  salerings,  and  the  herd 
in  his  charge  was  fortunate  in  the  possession  of 
probably  the  best  of  all  the  latter-day  Duchess  bulls 
in  North  America — the  imported  4th  Duke  of  Clar- 
ence, not  only  a  good  show  bull,  but  a  prepotent  sire, 
one  of  the  most  noted  of  his  get  being  the  white 
steer  Clarence  Kirklevington,  champion  alive  and  on 
the  block  at  the  American  Fat  Stock  Show  of  1884. 
Hope  was  completely  wrapped  up  in  **the  Duke," 
and  always  spoke  of  him  in  terms  of  the  most  af- 
fectionate regard.  I  have  known  many  cases  of 
strong  attachment  of  a  master  for  a  pet  horse  or 
hound,  but  Hope's  feelings  toward  the  4th  Duke 
of  Clarence  seemed  deeper  than  I  have  ever  ob- 
served elsewhere  on  the  part  of  an  owner  or  herds- 
man toward  a  beast  of  the  bovine  species.  And 
when  the  end  came  for  poor  John — who  under  the 
spell  of  an  insufferable  nervous  depression  com- 
mitted suicide  in  1894 — he  betook  himself  to  the 
old  Duke's  box  to  end  his  own  sufferings.  Hope 
was  of  English  birth,  a  good  all-around  judge  of 
farm  animals,  experienced  in  all  the  arts  of  show- 
manship, and,  as  evidenced  by  the  act  just  men- 
tioned, was  full  of  sentiment.  Unfortunately,  he  was 
identified  with  a  sinking  ship  so  far  as  the  financ- 


106  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


ing  of  a  cattle-breeding  establishment  conducted 
along  Bates  lines  was  concerned.  Still,  he  was  in 
comfortable  circumstances  personally  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  and  only  disappointment  at  not  obtain- 
ing the  title  to  the  farm  was  advanced  at  the  time 
as  an  inciting  cause  for  the  rash  act  which  ended 
his  career.  Hope  was  a  man  who  should  have 
lived  out  a  long  and  satisfying  life,  and  had  he 
done  so  he  would  have  been  one  of  the  stanchest 
supporters  of  Saddle  and  Sirloin  aspirations  and 
policies. 

Charles  A.  Degraff,  big,  generous-hearted,  noble- 
minded  patron  of  animal  breeding,  until  overtaken 
ail  too  soon  by  the  grim  reaper,  was  one  of  the 
kingliest  characters  of  his  generation.  Minnesota 
was  indeed  fortunate  in  the  early  days  of  the  de- 
velopment of  her  agriculture  in  having  such  men 
as  William  S.  King,  N.  P.  Clarke,  Henry  F.  Brown 
and  Charles  A.  Degraff  to  spread  with  lavish 
hands  the  materials  for  the  foundation  of  her  sub- 
sequently splendid  live-stock  husbandry;  but  easily 
the  kindliest,  greatest-hearted  of  them  all  was 
"Charley"  Degraff. 

In  1883  came  some  of  the  last  brilliant  flashes 
of  the  Duchess  boom.  Holford  of  Castle  Hill  sold 
the  3d  Duchess  of  Leicester  and  the  3d   Duke  of 


ManMM— jgijii— gaaagaaan  m  ii«  riii-ii*r<nrMinr'f^'  -      i  f — 1 1  ir  ■  1 1  --n  n.  ■  -    i  i — -i       n-.  •  •  - 
ROMANCE    OF    THE    DUKES    AND    DUCHESSES  107 


Leicester  to  Lord  Fitzhardinge  at  $5,Z50  and 
$4,500  respectively,  and  Earl  Bective  paid  $7,625 
for  the  Duchess  of  Leicester.  And  about  this  date 
the  8th  Duke  of  Tregunter,  that  had  been  exported 
to  Australia,  changed  hands  in  that  land  of  illimit- 
able pastures  at  $20,000.  But  the  bloom  was  fad- 
ing. The  primal  excellence  of  Charles  Colling's 
Stanwick  cow  of  1783,  the  excellence  of  the  first 
Duchess  bought  by  Mr.  Bates,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
really  grand  specimens  that  came  with  the  use  of 
Belvidere,  had  been  largely  lost  through  reckless  in- 
and-in  breeding,  directed,  not  by  the  master  mind  of 
Thomas  Bates,  but  for  the  most  part  by  amateurs 
who  were  little  less  than  gamblers,  faithless  alto- 
gether to  the  high  ideals  of  the  creator  of  the  type 
and  loyal  only  to  the  god  of  gold. 

The  story  needs  no  written  moral;  but  what  a 
tribute  to  the  genius  of  him  who  rests  yonder 
across  the  sea  in  the  little  churchyard  of  Kirklev- 
ington!  Verily  this  narrative  of  the  belated  apprecia- 
tion of  the  work  of  Thomas  Bates,  and  the  fierce 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  his  legacy  to  the  bovine 
world  that  occurred  so  many  years  after  his  decease, 
recalls  the  fate  of  the  creator  of  the  tale  of  Troy: 

"Seven  wealthy  towns  contend  for  Honrier  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread." 


XIV 
THE  FIRST  FARMER  OF  ENGLAND 

Here  is  a  story  of  success  in  farming  and  stock- 
breeding  that  reveals,  in  startling  fashion,  the 
possibilities  of  a  noble  profession  persistently  and 
intelligently  pursued — a  recital  that  contains  more 
inspiration  perhaps  than  almost  any  other  that  may 
be  told  in  Saddle  and  Sirloin  circles — the  tale  of 
William  Torr. 

In  the  portrait  you  may  see  a  faint  reflection 
of  the  "cheery  sun-at-noonday  smile"  which  was  the 
outward  manifestation  of  a  disposition  that  endeared 
him  at  once  to  all  who  came  into  his  presence. 
He  attained  to  a  distinction  second  to  none  other 
that  can  be  bestowed  upon  a  Briton-born,  the 
sobriquet  of  "the  first  farmer  of  England."  In  a 
land  where  practically  every  man,  woman  and  child, 
from  His  Majesty  at  Buckingham  Palace  down  to 
the  very  humblest,  have  an  inborn  affection  for  the 
soil  and  a  pride  in  rural  achievement,  the  phrase 
we  couple  with  the  name  of  Torr  is  redolent  of 
fertile,  well-kept  fields,  rare  herds  and  flocks,  rich 
swards  bedecked  with  buttercups,  the  hawthorn 
hedge,  the  smooth  hard  highway  winding  in  and  out 
between  stone  walls,  distant  spires  or  turrets   half 

108 


THE    FIRST    FARMER    OF    ENGLAND  109 


hidden  by  the  oaks  or  elms  that  guard  some  stately 
home — the  open  country  of  this  island  garden  of 
the  North  Atlantic!  To  be  first,  or  even  among  the 
first,  in  a  land  which  above  all  other  lands  realizes 
in  fullest  measure  one's  fondest  dreams  of  all  that 
God's  great  out-of-doors  should  be,  stamps  him  to 
whom  it  is  applied  as  possessing  every  claim  to 
that  immortality  with  which  we  love  to  invest  those 
whose  portraits  pass  the  curtains  of  the  inner  shrine. 
May  election  to  that  chamber  be  ever  closely  guarded! 
ToRR  was  a  Lincolnshire  man  who  first  of  all 
became  a  master  of  the  arts  of  tillage,  his  crops 
being  the  envy  of  his  brother  tenants  throughout  all 
the  east  of  England.  An  admirer  of  good  sheep,  he 
took  up  the  Leicesters,  giving  them  that  unremitting 
care  and  thought  which  has  made  Britain  so  famous 
for  its  fleecy  wonders.  His  heart,  however,  was  ever 
with  the  Shorthorns,  and  after  due  deliberation  he 
decided  to  cast  his  fortunes  with  the  house  of  Booth. 
His  real  career  as  a  cattle-breeder  began  when  in 
1 844  he  leased  the  famous  Leonard,  one  of  the  best 
stock-getters  of  his  day,  and  to  the  very  last  he  re- 
mained a  devoted  and  determined  adherent  of  that 
line  of  breeding.  Like  all  other  great  constructive 
breeders,  he  put  ultimate  results  above  temporary 
expediency.     He  had  a  definite  end  in  view  from  the 


110  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


very  first,  and  swerved  not  from  the  path  marked 
out.  He  bred  especially  for  the  oblique,  well-laid 
shoulder,  great  foreribs,  broad  loins  and  heavy  flesh, 
possessing  mellowness  without  undue  softness,  and 
prized  especially  a  furry  coat.  Substance  and  con- 
stitution too  were  cardinal  considerations,  and  the 
uniformity  in  these  particulars  which  he  succeeded 
in  establishing  in  later  years  provides  the  proof  of 
his  genius  in  the  manipulation  of  animal  form. 

Greatly  enamored  as  he  was  of  the  massive  old 
Killerby  and  Warlaby  stock,  Torr  had  seen  the  Duke 
of  Northumberland  at  his  best,  and  often  spoke  of 
him  as  the  finest  show  bull  he  had  ever  seen,  and 
it  appears  that  he  conceived  the  notion  that  a  dash 
of  Bates  might  possibly  prove  helpful  in  the  course 
of  his  own  experiments.  He  once  journeyed  to 
Kirklevington  in  the  earlier  days  of  his  Shorthorn 
work  with  a  view  towards  hiring  the  4th  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  which  he  regarded  as  even  a  better 
bull  than  the  first  of  that  name.  The  deal  was 
practically  closed,  but  Mr.  Bates  undertook  to  stipu- 
late that  the  bull  should  be  bred  to  only  25  cows, 
whereupon  Torr  rejoined,  "Very  well,  Mr.  Bates,  you 
have  your  bull  and  I  have  my  money."  At  a  later 
date  some  of  the  blood  was  secured,  however.  At 
the  Kirklevington  dispersion  Torr   had   particularly 


THE   FIRST   FARMER   OF    ENGLAND  .  Ill 


admired  the  Waterloos,  and  decided  to  go  on  with  a 
branch  of  that  family  which  he  had  introduced  into 
his  own  herd  five  years  previously  by  the  purchase 
of  a  cow  called  Water  Witch,  sired  by  the  4th  Duke 
of  Northumberland  out  of  Mr.  Bates'  Waterloo  Sd 
by  Norfolk.  By  the  use  of  Booth  bulls  upon  this 
sort  he  produced  one  of  the  most  prolific  and  one 
of  the  best  groups  in  the  Aylesby  Manor  herd.  His 
pet  family,  nevertheless,  was  the  Flower  tribe,  de- 
scended in  the  maternal  line  from  Nonpareil,  for 
which  Earl  Spencer  had  paid  370  guineas,  the 
highest  figure  reached  at  Robert  Golling's  sale  of 
1818. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Thomas  Booth,  un- 
like Bates,  had  builded  up  his  original  herd  by  using 
Colling  bulls  upon  females  of  his  own  selection. 
Torr  pursued  a  similar  policy;  that  is,  he  resorted 
to  the  Booth  blood  only  for  his  sires,  buying  his 
foundation  breeding  cows  wherever  he  found  types 
to  his  liking.  True,  his  Ribys  and  Brights  went 
back  to  Booth's  Anna;  but  they  had  crosses  of 
extraneous  blood  put  in  after  Whitaker's  purchase 
of  a  cow  of  that  derivation  at  the  Studley  sale  of 
18S4.  The  reuniting  of  the  Booth  blood  in  this 
case  proved  a  pronounced  success,  so  much  so  that 
when  the  herd  was  finally  dispersed  Mr.  T.  G.  Booth 


11.2  AT    THE    SIGN    OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


took  the  cream  of  the  lot  back  to  Warlaby,  as  will 
presently  be  noticed. 

It  is  with  the  outcome  of  Mr.  Torr's  operations 
that  we  are  here  concerned,  rather  than  in  the  details 
of  his  breeding  operations;  and  as  the  verdict  placed 
upon  his  work  by  his  appreciative  fellow-countrymen 
was  one  of  the  most  flattering  that  ever  fell  to  the 
lot  of  a  breeder  of  improved  live  stock  in  any  land, 
we  hasten  now  to  present  it.  He  had  once  said, 
"It  takes  SO  years  for  any  man  to  make  a  herd 
and  bring  it  to  one's  notions  of  perfection."  For- 
tunately he  lived  to  devote  that  space  of  time  to 
the  Shorthorn  cattle.  He  died  in  1876,  and  the 
cattle  went  to  the  auction  block  in  September  of 
that  year.  Dun  more  had  just  made  his  $3,800 
average  on  39  head  of  BATEs-bred  cattle. 

Warlaby  had  been  suffering  severely  for  some 
time  from  the  effects  of  long-continued  high  feeding 
for  show.  A  tendency  to  shy  breeding  had  already 
developed,  when  a  virulent  visitation  of  foot-and- 
mouth  came  along,  bringing  disastrous  consequences 
in  its  train.  The  stock  stood,  therefore,  at  this 
time  sadly  in  need  of  vigorous  rehabilitation.  The 
herd  that  William  Torr  had  created  at  Aylesby  was 
confessedly  not  only  the  best  collection  of  Booth- 
bred   cattle    in  the   kingdom,  but  the  best  herd  of 


THE    FIRST    FARMER    OF    ENGLAND  113 


any  line  of  breeding  at  that  date  on  either  side 
the  Atlantic.  Hence  it  came  to  pass  that  when  its 
dispersion  was  announced,  visitors  from  far  and 
near  gathered  literally  by  the  thousand,  and  with 
Tom  Booth  at  their  head. 

Luncheon  had  been  set  for  1,500  guests,  a  great 
canvas  accommodating  2,000  people  was  provided, 
and  yet  the  crowds  overflowed  all  Aylesby  and 
vicinity.  Great  landed  proprietors  and  peers  of  the 
realm  mingled  with  eminent  breeders,  all  intent  upon 
showing  their  respect  and  love  for  the  man  who 
had  accomplished  so  much  for  his  country's  good. 
Factors,  herdsmen  and  agents  mingled  with  the 
throng,  eagerly  examining  the  cattle  and  making 
notes  on  the  various  lots  preparatory  to  laying  bids 
for  absent  principals.  It  was,  in  brief,  a  scene  that 
has  had  few  parallels  in  agricultural  history;  and 
the  disposition  of  eighty-five  head  of  Torr's  own 
production  for  the  great  sum  of  $243,1 44. 5T  must 
be  regarded,  all  things  considered,  as  the  most  re- 
markable result  ever  yet  worked  out  by  an  individ- 
ual breeder  of  Shorthorns  or  any  other  class  of 
cattle. 

Mr.  Booth  improved  to  the  utmost  this  opportu- 
nity of  laying  hold  of  sound  old  Killerby  and  Warlaby 
blood,  and  gave  the  top  price,  $12,900,  for  Bright 


114  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Empress,  and  the  second  highest,  $8,900,  for  Bright 
Saxon.  For  Bright  Spangle  he  paid  $6,300.  Riby 
Marchioness  went  to  Ireland  at  $7,530,  and  the 
beautiful  Highland  Flower  to  Rev.  T.  Staniforth 
at  $8,960.  The  top  for  bulls  was  $4,185,  reached 
three  times,  Riby  Knight  going  at  that  figure  to 
New  Zealand.  The  22  Annas  averaged  $4,180 
each,  and  21  Waterloos  made  but  $1,275  each. 
No  such  sale  of  cattle  of  one  man's  own  produc- 
tion is  on  record.  The  point  is,  that  a  tenant 
farmer  by  devoting  thirty  years  to  a  single  purpose 
bred  up  a  herd  that  was  appraised  at  public  vendue 
at  nearly  $250,000! 

What  has  been  done  can  be  done  again.     His- 
tory repeats. 


XV 

NORTHERN  LIGHTS 

Decidedly  a  man  of  action,  you  will  not  be  long 
in  locating  the  particularly  striking  portrait  of 
Barclay  of  Ury,  who  first  stirred  Aberdeenshire  on 
the  subject  of  better  cattle.  Robertson  of  Ladykirk 
in  Berwickshire  and  Rennie  of  East  Lothian  had  at 
an  early  date  carried  the  "Durham"  colors  across 
the  Tweed,  but  their  portraits  are  yet  among  our 
missing.  When  turnip  culture  came  at  last  to  be 
introduced  into  the  far  north,  the  time  was  ripe  for 
advancing  the  standard  of  quality  in  the  local  herds. 
The  result  of  that  awakening  is  now  a  familiar 
chapter  in  live-stock  history.  Wherever  an  Aber- 
deen Shorthorn  or  a  poll  is  to  be  seen  —  and  there 
are  few  portions  of  North  America  where  these  are 
not  in  evidence — there  is  occasion  for  removing  one's 
hat  in  memory  of  Gapt.  Barclay,  one  of  the  most 
unique  personalities,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
characters,  to  be  met  with  in  live-stock  literature. 

Descended  from  a  prominent  old  Kincardineshire 
family,  he  inherited  the  estate  of  Ury,  situated  along 
the  little  River  Gowie,  near  the  unpretentious  village 
of  Stonehaven  on  the  North  Sea  coast.  You  pass 
through  it  now  by  train  on  your  way  up  to  Aberdeen. 

115 


116  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


In  Barclay's  time  you  would  mount  the  box  or 
take  a  seat  inside  of  the  ''Defiance,"  in  which  famous 
old-time  coach  the  Captain  had  a  financial  and  deep 
personal  interest.  He  was  a  claimant  of  the  earl- 
dom of  Monteith,  and  writing  of  him  the  late  Wm. 
McGoMBiE  of  Tillyfour,  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Angus  "doddie"  breed,  once  said: 

"No  one  would  have  made  any  mistake  as  to 
Gapt.  Barclay  being  a  gentleman,  although  his  dress 
was  plain — a  long  green  coat  with  velvet  collar  and 
big  yellow  buttons,  a  colored  handkerchief,  long  yellow 
cashmere  vest,  knee-breeches,  very  wide  top-boots 
and  plain  black  hat." 

So  much  has  been  written  of  Barclay's  exploits 
as  perhaps  the  greatest  all-around  sportsman  of  his 
day,  that  his  place  as  a  contributor  to  Scottish 
national  wealth,  and,  incidentally,  to  the  world's 
riches,  cattle-wise,  has  never  quite  been  fully  ac- 
knowledged. He  was  himself  an  athlete  of  renown, 
and  it  is  marvelous  that  he  should  have  been  able 
to  actively  indulge  his  keen  delight  in  the  domains 
of  coaching,  coursing,  the  prize-ring,  fox  hunting, 
military  training  and  other  exercises  demanding 
physical  strength  and  endurance,  and  at  the  same 
time  devote  so  much  attention  to  the  introduction 
of  good  blood  into  his  native  Northland,  and  to  the 
production   of   cattle  which  formed   the  beginnings 


NORTHERN    LIGHTS  117 


of  the  Aberdeenshire  herds  that  afterwards  met 
with  world-wide  recognition.  But  he  was  no 
common  mortal,  this  lion-heart  of  Scotland.  He 
once  walked  one  thousand  miles  in  one  thousand 
hours  upon  a  wager!  He  once  drove  the  "Defiance" 
through  from  London  all  the  way  to  the  city  of 
Aberdeen — a  distance  of  fully  five  hundred  miles, 
without  leaving  the  box  —  to  win  a  bet  of  £1,000! 
At  the  end  of  the  journey,  upon  a  friend  remarking, 
"Captain,  you  must  be  tired,"  he  rejoined:  "I  have 
£1,000  that  says  I  can  drive  back  to  London  again, 
starting  in  the  morn;"  but  there  were  no  takers. 
He  was  an  officer  in  the  local  regiment.  He  loved 
boxing,  and  trained  several  noted  professionals  for 
important  bouts.  He  had  a  famous  breed  of  game 
fowls,  and  would  always  back  his  birds  to  win  in 
the  pit.  But  above  and  over  all  was  his  steadfast 
devotion  to  Ury  itself.  Big  himself,  he  did  every- 
thing on  a  scale  that  seemed  huge  to  most  of  his 
countrymen.  Speaking  of  this  "The  Druid"  says  in 
"Field  and  Fern": 

"Everything  he  had  to  do  with,  down  to  his  glass 
tumblers,  was  always  on  a  gigantic  scale.  His  cattle 
must  be  up  to  their  knees  in  grass,  and  his  wheat- 
wagons — with  four  or  six  horses  and  the  drag  on — 
seemed  like  an  earthquake  to  the  Aberdonians  when 
they  rumbled  down  Marischal  Street  to  the  harbor. 


118  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Well  might  the  surveyor  tremble  by  reason  of  them 
for  the  safety  of  the  Old  Bridge.  His  bull  Champion 
was  cut  up  for  refreshments  at  one  of  his  sales, 
and  when  he  thought  there  might  be  some  mistake 
about  the  arrival  of  the  regular  beef  supplies,  he 
had  twelve  geese  killed  and  spitted  on  an  ashet 
before  the  fire.  He  would  have  his  rounds  of  beef 
of  a  certain  circumference,  and  it  was  because  he 
despaired  of  finding  a  bullock  of  the  regulation  size 
that  he  made  Champion  stand  proxy." 

Confirmatory  of  all  this  is  McCombie's  assertion 
that  "his  horses  were  the  strongest  and  his  fields 
the  largest  in  the  country.  He  once  said  that  he 
'did  not  like  a  field  in  which  the  cattle  could  see 
one  another  every  day.'  " 

The  estate  of  Ury  proper  comprised  about  4,000 
acres,  of  which  the  Captain  had  about  400  acres  in 
his  personal  control.  It  was  naturally  a  poor,  sterile 
soil,  littered  with  the  stony  debris  of  the  ancient 
glaciers  from  the  Grampians;  but  his  father  at 
prodigious  outlay  of  labor  had  reduced,  by  the  free 
use  of  lime  and  the  culture  of  roots,  200  acres  to 
a  good  state  of  fertility.  Two  hundred  more  were 
reclaimed  from  the  heather  and  1,200  acres  planted 
to  timberl  At  such  a  cost  did  these  pioneer  North- 
of-Scotland  farmers  make  productive  lands  of  their 
ancestral  barrens. 


NORTHERN    LIGHTS  119 


Capt.  Barclay  began  with  Shorthorns  about 
1822,  and  when  the  herd  of  Mason  of  Chilton  was 
sold  off  in  Durham  in  1829  he  bought  probably  the 
best  cow  in  that  far-famed  old-time  collection. 
This  was  the  celebrated  Lady  Sarah,  which  he  took 
out  at  150  guineas,  and  she  proved  a  fine  invest- 
ment. She  produced,  after  her  arrival  at  Ury,  the 
bull  Monarch  (4495),  and  here  comes  in  again  the 
appeal  to  Bakewell.  Monarch,  bred  back  to  his 
own  dam,  sired  the  bulls  Mahommed  and  Sovereign. 
The  former  was  sold,  but  turned  out  such  a  capital 
breeder  that  he  was  bought  back  and  kept  in  ser- 
vice by  the  Captain  until  1841.  Lady  Sarah  left 
three  heifers  that  gave  rise  to  good  families. 
Amos  Gruickshank,  who  got  his  first  bulls  from  Ury, 
once  said:  "I  question  if  ever  there  was  a  better 
breed  of  Shorthorn  in  England,  Scotland  or  any- 
where else  than  the  Lady  Sarah  tribe." 

Barclay  was  a  friend  and  intimate  of  four  of 
the  best  cattle  judges  of  their  time:  William 
Wetherell,  William  McCombie,  Hugh  Watson  and 
Jonas  Webb,  upon  whose  judgment  and  advice  he 
is  said  to  have  frequently  relied.  The  former 
bought  old  Lady  Sarah  when  13  years  old  at  one 
of  the  Ury  sales,  and  sold  her  to  Watson.  The 
latter  shares  with  McCombie  in  Scottish  history  the 


120  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


honor  of  being  one  of  the  originators  of  the  Aber- 
deen-Angus "humlies." 

The  first  Ury  herd  was  closed  out  at  auction  in 
1858,  the  eighty  head  bringing  £5,000.  The  bull 
Mahommed  was  retained,  and  shortly  another  herd 
was  in  process  of  formation.  This  was  sold  in 
1847,  Wetherell  being  the  auctioneer,  and  it  was 
upon  this  occasion  that  Campbell  of  Kinellar  laid 
the  foundation  by  purchase  for  his  afterwards 
famous  herd. 

Ury  was  undoubtedly  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Scottish  Shorthorn  structure.  The  bulls  from  the 
Barclay  herd  were  used  originally  to  cross  upon 
the  native  black  cows,  and  the  improvement  wrought 
was  so  apparent  that  probably  a  majority  of  the 
herds  of  the  district  received  an  infusion  of  Ury 
blood.  The  result  was  a  demand  for  Shorthorn 
bulls  that  finally  turned  the  attention  of  such  men 
as  Grant  Duff  of  Eden,  Hay  of  Shethin,  the  Gruick- 
SHANKS  of  Sittyton,  and  many  others  to  the  pro- 
duction of  purebred  Shorthorns. 

The  Gaptain  once  kept  a  pack  at  a  neighboring 
estate  called  Allardyce,  and  hunted  in  Turiff  and 
Kincardineshire.  It  was  due  to  this  connection  that 
he  acquired  the  habit  of  signing  himself  "Barclay 
Allardyce."     It  is  related  that  he  would  often  ride 


NORTHERN    LIGHTS  121 


forty  miles  to  a  meet.  He  was  wont  also  to  go  to 
Leamington,  a  fashionable  English  watering  place 
near  Warwick,  for  the  hunting  season,  where  he 
made  something  of  a  sensation  by  appearing  at  one 
of  the  grand  balls  in  his  old  green  coat  and  black 
knee-breeches.  He  was  a  supporter  also  of  the 
turf,  commonly  attending  the  Epsom  Derby. 

One  of  his  friends  characterized  him  as  *'a  great 
eater,  a  man  of  fine,  simple  faith  and  always  in 
condition."  Dixon  says  that  "when  he  first  met 
Hugh  Watson  at  a  coursing  meeting,  and  seeing 
that  he  was  a  man  after  his  own  heart,  asked  him, 
as  if  it  was  a  highly  intellectual  treat,  'Would  you 
like  to  see  me  strip  tonight,  and  feel  my  muscle?' " 

Dixon  has  also  left  this  picture  of  the  redoubt- 
able Captain: 

"At  home  his  own  habits  were  very  quiet  and 
simple.  He  was  always  ready  with  his  subscription 
for  any  good  object,  and  every  Monday  twenty  or 
thirty  people  would  be  waiting  for  him  about  the 
front  door  after  breakfast  for  their  sixpences,  of 
which  he  carried  a  supply  in  his  waistcoat  pocket. 
On  New  Year's  Day  he  had  always  his  friends 
to  dinner,  land  he  sat  obscured  to  the  chin  behind 
the  round  of  beef  which  two  men  brought  in  on  a 
trencher.  Mr.  Kinnear  was  the  perpetual  Vice, 
and  everybody  made  a  speech.    The  Captain's  was 


122  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


quite  an  oration,  or  rather  a  resume  of  the  year,  and 
concluded  with  special  eulogium  on  those  who  'have 
died  since  our  last  anniversary.'  Not  infrequently 
he  killed  one  or  two  before  their  time,  perhaps  more 
from  a  little  dry  humor  than  by  mistake;  and  then 
he  begged  their  pardon  and  said,  *it  didn't  matter 
much.'  For  some  time  before  his  death  he  had  suf- 
fered slightly  from  paralysis;  but  a  kick  from  a  pony 
produced  a  crisis,  and  two  days  after,  when  they 
went  to  awake  him  on  the  May  morning  of  '54,  he 
was  found  dead  in  bed.  He  lies  in  the  cemetery  of 
Ury,  about  a  mile  from  his  old  home^ — the  trainer  of 
pugilists  with  the  gentle  apologist  for  the  Quakers — 
and  his  claim  to  the  earldom  of  Airth  and  Monteith 
seemed  to  die  out  with  him." 

Let  us  hope  that  in  due  course  of  time  Hugh 
Watson  and  William  McGombie  will  find  their  proper 
places  in  the  inner  circle  of  the  Club  alongside 
Barclay  and  Amos  Gruickshank.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  there  was  a  native  race  of  polled 
cattle  in  Angus,  Aberdeen  and  contiguous  counties 
long  before  Barclay  introduced  the  Shorthorn, 
Hugh  Watson  of  Forfarshire  was  the  man  who  had 
done  most  to  develop  the  doddie  type  within  itself, 
and  his  success  with  the  blacks  was  commensurate 
with  that  of  the  Gollings  with  the  Shorthorns.  He 
commenced  at  Keillor  in  1809,  and  never  deserted 
the   type   to   the   date   of  his   death.     He   was  on 


NORTHERN    LIGHTS  123 


terms  of  close  friendship  with  such  congenial  spirits 
in  the  south  as  John  Booth,  Anthony  Maynard, 
Wetherell  and  Torr,  and  is  said  to  have  followed 
closely  in  his  wonderful  manipulations  of  Angus 
form  the  methods  of  those  eminent  English  breeders, 
including  resort,  at  times,  to  close  inter -breeding. 
Booth's  Bracelet  and  Charity  were  Keillor's  beau 
ideals  of  beef  form,  and  he  directed  his  operations 
with  the  blackskins  to  the  attainment  of  a  similar 
type. 

McGoMBiE  was  the  man  who  saved  the  "doddies" 
from  virtual  extinction  in  Aberdeenshire  at  a  time 
when  the  Shorthorns  were  threatening  to  engulf 
the  indigenous  type  on  its  native  heath.  He  began 
about  1830,  and  for  full  fifty  years  devoted  his 
rare  skill  and  judgment  to  the  improvement  of  the 
"bonnie  blacks."  The  story  of  his  triumphs  would 
fill  a  volume. 

I  once  spent  a  day  at  Ballindalloch,  that  great 
stronghold  of  the  Angus  high  up  in  the  valley  of 
the  Spey  the  guest  of  the  late  Sir  George  Mac- 
Pherson  Grant,  and  the  pictures  seen  that  day  are 
mirrored  plainly  still  in  memory  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  twenty  years.  The  ancient  castle  with 
its  narrow  spiral  stairway  in  the  tower,  the  views  of 
distant  hill  and  wood,  the  winding  river,  the   pas- 


124  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


tures  leading  up  to  where  the  purple  heather  grows, 
the  glossy- coated  cattle,  Sir  George's  brother 
Campbell  in  his  Highland  kilts,  Mackenzie  of  Dal- 
more,  a  fellow-guest  to  argue  with,  and  the  baronet 
himself  for  guide ! 

This  was  when  the  Ballindalloch  Ericas  were 
to  be  seen  in  all  the  glory  of  their  flesh,  finish  and 
rotundity — neat,  thick,  low,  wide  and  as  like  as  peas 
in  the  same  pod.  Sir  George  had  attained  the  very 
top  of  the  tree  as  the  foremost  breeder  of  Aber- 
deen-Angus of  modern  days,  and  frankly  acknowl- 
edged that  the  foundation  of  his  success  was  laid 
by  the  purchase  and  free  use  of  the  bull  Trojan, 
bought  from  McCombie  in  1865.  Thus  are  the 
links  forged  in  the  chains  of  all  these  annals  of 
the  breed.  The  whole  splendid  story  of  how  the 
great  work  of  one  generation  has  been  carried  for- 
ward by  the  next,  and  the  fruit  of  it  all  preserved 
and  handed  down  for  the  benefit  of  the  farming 
world,  should  be  held  up  before  the  present  gener- 
ation at  every  opportunity  and  at  any  reasonable 
cost. 

Has  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  anything  yet 
to  do?  OhI  ye  who  know  not  the  paths  of  glory 
in  the  animal  breeding  realm,  ye  who  are  not  con- 
scious of   the   miracles   that   have   been  worked   in 


NORTHERN   LIGHTS  125 


pastures  and  paddocks  on  both  sides  the  North 
Atlantic,  familiarize  yourselves  with  the  historic 
places  that  await  you  in  a  thousand  beautiful  and 
secluded  nooks  and  corners  of  this  fine  old  world 
and  answer. 


XVI 
CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH 

There  are  many  instances  in  live-stock  history 
of  "community  breeding"  carried  to  extraordinary 
heights  of  success.  Draw,  for  instance,  circles  hav- 
ing radii  of  say  twenty  or  thirty  miles  around  the 
cities  of  Hereford,  Darlington  and  Nogent-le-Rotrou, 
and  you  would  circumscribe  the  districts  wherein 
great  men  lived  out  their  useful  lives  preparing  for 
the  world's  everlasting  benefit  the  Hereford  cattle, 
the  Shorthorn  cattle  and  the  Percheron  horse. 
The  case  of  the  Clydesdale  and  the  Ayrshire  country, 
the  accomplishments  of  Aberdeenshire,  of  the  Isles 
of  Jersey  and  Guernsey,  the  great  contribution 
by  the  Netherlands  and  various  other  outstanding 
illustrations,  all  serve  to  point  alike  the  moral,  and 
adorn  the  tale,  of  how  splendid  enduring  sources 
of  world  wealth  have  been  worked  out  within  the 
boundaries  of  a  restricted  area  through  the  per- 
sistent co-operation  of  enthusiastic  groups  of  men 
bound  together  by  the  ties  of  keen,  mutual  interest. 

If  ever  an  ideal  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  were 
to  come  into  existence,  it  would  have  separate  rooms 
devoted  to  the  exploitation  of  the  origin  and  devel- 
opment of  all  the  leading  breeds  that  are  now  such 
important  factors   in   our   national   economy.     Sup- 

126 


CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH         127 


posing  for  a  moment  we  enter  what  might  be  called 
the  "Darlington  Room."  In  its  center  is  seen  a 
topographical  map.  Its  dominant  feature  would  be 
the  Valley  of  the  Tees,  beginning,  say,  at  Barnard 
Castle  and  ending  where  Middlesbrough  bids  the 
peaceful  little  river  farewell  as  it  passes  into  the 
bosom  of  the  German  Ocean.  Far  in  the  north  is 
Durham  cathedral's  "majestic  gothic  shade."  To  the 
east  the  vale  of  Cleveland.  In  the  south  Derwent 
water,  Northallerton  and  the  grassy  vale  of  the  Swale. 
And  everywhere  historic  homes  and  steadings!  Wyn- 
yard,  Wolviston,  Acklam,  Kirklevington,  Sockburn, 
Brawith,  Brandsby,  Marton-le-Moor,  Studley  Royal, 
Skipton  Bridge,  Warlaby,  Braithwaite,  Carperby, 
Marske,  Ravensworth,  Barningham,  Stanwick,  Gain- 
ford,  Dalton,  Aldbrough,  Smeaton,  Cleasby,  Eryholme, 
Barmpton,  Ketton,  Chilton!  Mark  also  those  an- 
cient and  honorable  "clearing  houses"  already  men- 
tioned in  these  tales,  the  "Black  Bull  Inn"  and  the 
"King's  Head"  in  the  streets  of  Yarm  and  Darling- 
ton— twin  capitals  of  this  district  of  great  destiny. 
On  the  walls  of  this  imaginary  room  are  portraits 
of  at  least  a  score  of  presiding  judges  of  the  olden 
cattle  courts,  and  rare  old  prints  of  famous  bovine 
favorites.  Mementoes  of  these  breed-makers  also 
find  here  a  fitting  resting  place,  and  as  the  people 


128  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


turn  from  the  International  championship  battles  of 
today  to  touch  these  relics  of  patron  saints,  their 
faith  and  fast  allegiance  is  indeed  renewed.  Some 
day  we  may  see  this  room,  and  from  it  pass  on  to 
others  wherein  we  shall  find  equally  impressive 
mementoes  of  the  birthplaces  and  creators  of  other 
pastoral  assets. 

Meantime,  take  as  another  type  of  these  old 
field  marshals  of  York  and  Durham,  William 
Wetherell  of  the  Ogilvie  group.  Unfortunately 
we  cannot  now  show  you  the  prints  that  once  hung 
in  his  modest  home  at  Aldbrough.  Pictures  of  the 
GoLLiNGs,  Thomas  Booth,  Sir  Tatton  Sykes,  Wiley 
and  Barclay  of  Ury  were  there;  also  the  portrait 
of  a  cow  that  Booth  had  sold  as  a  two-year-old 
and  bought  back  later  at  beef  price,  producing  three 
heifers  for  which  Rennie  of  Phantassie  bid  500 
guineas  unavailingly.  Weaver's  painting  of  Comet 
was  also  Wetherell's.  In  the  presence  of  these 
and  other  reminders  it  was  easy  to  draw  a  wealth 
of  old-time  cattle  lore  from  this  "Nestor"  of  the 
great  fraternity  that  wrought  such  marvels  in  this 
little  kingdom  of  Darlington.  Wetherell,  in  his 
time,  bred  four  distinct  herds.  He  first  caught  the 
divine  fire  when  as  a  mere  boy  he  gazed  with  wide- 
eyed  wonder  as  the   bidding   went   to    a   thousand 


.A 

■h 

1 

■'  i 

CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH         129 


guineas  at  Ketton  in  1810,  and  at  Robert  Golling's 
sale  eight  years  later  he  made  his  maiden  purchases. 
He  was  active,  vigorous,  aggressive,  persistent  and 
a  walking  cyclopedia  of  facts  dealing  with  Short- 
horn development.  Recognized  also  as  one  of  the 
best  judges  of  his  time,  fond  of  his  friends  and 
ever  ready  to  join  in  debate,  he  was  a  welcome 
and  frequent  visitor  throughout  all  the  valley  and 
beyond.  He  combated  the  old  craze  for  mere  size, 
and  preached  constitution  first,  last  and  all  the  time 
as  the  bas-is  of  all  success  in  animal  breeding. 

Wetherell  was  an  auctioneer  besides  being  him- 
self a  frequent  and  liberal  buyer  of  top  cattle,  and 
no  amount  of  bad  luck  ever  seemed  to  swerve  him 
from  his  devotion  to  the  Shorthorn  cause.  Pleuro- 
pneumonia once  carried  off  24  of  his  cows  in  a 
single  season,  and  the  best  bull  he  ever  owned  de- 
veloped such  a  temper  that  he  had  to  be  shot  for 
fear  of  possible  fatalities  to  the  attendants.  His 
faithful  herdsman,  John  Ward,  was  one  of  the  mas- 
ters of  his  profession  in  a  day  when  showyard  and 
salering  generals  of  the  first-class  were  much  in 
evidence.  The  final  dispersion  sale  was  a  memora- 
ble occasion.  The  crowd  had  been  liberally  enter- 
tained at  the  ''King's  Head"  the  night  before,  and 
the    proprietor  "in    a  white  waistcoat    on    a   pony" 


130  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


personally  directed  the  selling.  He  spoke  feelingly 
of  *'auld  acquaentance,"  and  a  blue  bullock-van 
with  "The  Cumberland  Ox"  in  six-inch  letters  on  its 
side,  did  duty,  according  to  Dixon,  "as  catalogue 
and  counting  house."  John  Charge,  then  bowed 
and  feeble  under  the  weight  of  years,  was  in  the 
throng,  and,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  a  friend,  told  of 
how  "nine  and  forty  years  before  he  had  joined  to 
buy  a  leg  of  Comet,"  having  been  one  of  the  four 
to  pay  1,000  guineas  for  the  bull  at  the  Ketton 
sale.  Lady  Pigot,  from  her  brougham,  sent  in  the 
300-guinea  bid  that  took  Stanley  Rose,  the  highest 
priced  lot  of  the  day. 

Another  fine  type  of  these  wonderful  English 
farmers,  although  belonging  to  a  somewhat  later 
era,  was  Jonas  Webb,  of  Babraham  in  Cambridge- 
shire, one  of  the  recognized  builders  of  the  beautiful 
Southdown  breed  of  sheep.  You  will  find  his  por- 
trait also  in  the  Ogilvie  lot.  Mr.  Webb  was  another 
man  of  decided  originality.  It  is  indeed  extraordi- 
nary that  England  should  have  produced  so  many 
big-brained  men  capable  of  mapping  out  independent 
courses,  and  following  up  schemes  of  breeding, 
usually  along  Bakewell  lines,  leading  to  fame  and 
sometimes  fortune.  One  can  readily  imagine  what 
zest  must  have  animated  those  sessions  of  the  long 


CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH         131 


ago  when  these  strong-minded,  virile  personalities 
came  in  frequent  mental  contact. 

The  creation  of  the  Southdown  must  be  classed 
as  one  of  the  notable  achievements  of  a  century 
phenomenally  prolific  in  great  gifts  to  agriculture. 
What  a  Thoroughbred  racer  is  to  the  road,  track 
and  saddle  horse  stock  of  the  world,  so  is  the  South- 
down to  most  of  our  great  modern  middle-wooled 
mutton  types  of  sheep. 

JoNAS  Webb  merits  a  monument  for  his  work 
with  Southdowns  alone.  For  years  his  fiock  was 
drawn  upon  by  the  best  breeders  of  England  as 
well  as  by  royalty.  Choice  specimens  were  often 
sent  to  leading  shows,  and  the  Babraham  pens 
were  ever  a  center  of  attraction.  A  particularly 
fine  group  was  forwarded  for  exhibition  to  one  of 
the  earlier  Paris  Universal  Expositions,  and  in  con- 
nection with  this  a  story  is  told  that  proves  that 
Jonas  Webb  was  quick  as  well  as  deep.  One  day 
during  the  Exposition  the  Emperor,  Napoleon  III, 
drove  through  the  live-stock  section.  It  was  of 
course  a  gala  day.  The  carriage,  drawn  by  four 
white  horses  richly  caparisoned,  was  halted  at  the 
ruler's  request  in  front  of  the  Southdown  pens.  Mr. 
Webb  chanced  to  be  on  hand.  The  distinguished 
visitor  after  admiring  the  sheep  with  every  indica- 


/ 


152  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


tion  of  enthusiasm  asked  to  whom  they  belonged. 
Like  a  flash  came  back  the  reply,  "Yours,  your 
majesty,  if  you  will  accept  them."  The  gift  was 
graciously  received,  and  some  weeks  later  there 
came  to  Babraham,  with  the  compliments  of  Napo- 
leon III,  a  magnificent  chest  of  silver,  said  to  this 
day  to  be  one  of  the  finest  in  all  England. 

Although  not  in  the  Teeswater  district,  Mr.  Webb 
began  with  Shorthorns  in  1858,.  and  bred  them  with 
success  along  paths  of  his  own  choice  until  his  death 
in  1862,  at  which  time  his  herd  numbered  about 
150  head.  At  this  date  it  was  one  of  the  best 
large  herds  in  England,  and  a  brilliant  future  was 
assured  for  it  had  the  proprietor  lived  longer  to 
carry  out  his  plans.  When  dispersed  at  prices  rang- 
ing up  to  400  guineas  for  the  bull  Lord  Chancellor, 
quite  a  number  were  bought  for  export  to  Prussia, 
Austria  and  Australia.  Mr.  Jonas  Webb  Jr.,  a  grand- 
son of  this  distinguished  breeder,  became  associated 
with  the  late  John  Thornton — the  successor  of 
Strafford,  the  great  English  live-stock  auctioneer 
— and  will  be  pleasantly  remembered  by  many  Amer- 
icans who  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him  upon 
the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  States  some  years 
since. 

The   late   Sir  Walter  Gilbey  of  Elsenham  Hall, 


CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH         133 


Essex,  during  his  lifetime  was  made  a  baronet,  on 
request  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  by  a  stroke  of 
Queen  Victoria's  pen,  in  recognition  of  distinguished 
services  rendered  to  British  agriculture  and  horse- 
breeding.  Americans  may  consider  that  an  even 
greater  honor  has  come  to  Sir  Walter  dead.  A  fine 
copy,  by  Nyholm,  of  Sir  W.  Q.  Orchardson's  pres- 
entation portrait,  adorns  our  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
walls.  At  his  own  sweet  will  a  monarch  may  make 
a  belted  knight.  Something  more  than  that  is  a 
condition  precedent  to  admission  to  this  our  Amer- 
ican Academy.  The  original  of  this  fine  portrait  was 
paid  for  by  subscriptions  from  more  than  1,200 
different  people — a  fact  that  illustrates  the  subject's 
wide  popularity — and  the  presentation  speech  was 
made  by  the  prince,  who  was  afterwards  crowned 
King  Edward  VII.  This  event  took  place  in  1891, 
at  the  Royal  Agricultural  Hall  in  London,  the 
ceremonies  being  presided  over  by  the  Duke  of 
Portland,  Master  of  Horse  to  the  Grown. 

Sir  Walter's  father  was  a  stage-coach  driver 
on  the  run  from  Essex  to  White  Chapel,  and  the 
son  rose  from  poverty  to  enormous  wealth.  He  was 
ever  fond  of  a  good  horse,  and  a  great  fortune 
made  in  trade  was  freely  used  in  forwarding  the 
cause  of  agricultural  advancement  and  in  promoting 


134  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


interest  in  the  production  of  Shires,  Hackneys, 
Hunters  and  ponies.  As  a  boy  he  was  sent  out  to 
render  some  non-military  service  in  the  Crimean 
campaign.  It  is  related  that  he  exchanged  his  ration 
of  rum  with  the  soldiers  for  candles  to  enable  him 
to  sit  up  late  at  night  and  play  cribbage,  of  which 
card  game  he  was  very  fond.  In  later  years  he 
often  told  the  story  of  how  the  first  horse  he  ever 
owned  be  bought  with  money  won  at  this  pastime 
in  Crimea.  While  we  may  not  encourage  our  own 
youth  to  get  a  start  in  live  stock  in  this  particular 
fashion,  it  was  at  least  to  young  Gilbey's  credit 
that  he  traded  off  the  rum  instead  of  drinking  it 
himself.  Probably  that  is  one  reason  why  he  won 
at  cribbage  over  those  who  disposed  of  their  pota- 
tions with  less  wisdom.  He  lived  to  develop  a 
business  as  a  wine  merchant  which  paid  into  the 
royal  exchequer  taxes  aggregating  one  million  pounds 
sterling  annually!  So  much  for  his  capacity  as  a 
business  man. 

At  Elsenham  he  devoted  his  great  talents  and 
his  ample  fortune  to  arousing  England  to  a  realiz- 
ing sense  of  the  importance  of  maintaining  and 
still  further  improving  the  native  breeds  of  horses 
and  ponies.  He  was  at  different  times  President 
of   the    Shire    Horse   Society,   the    Hackney    Horse 


CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH         135 


Society,  the  Smithfield  Club,  the  Hunter  Improve- 
ment Society,  the  Polo  Pony  Society,  the  Shetland 
Pony  Society  and  the  Essex  Agricultural  Society. 
It  was  through  his  efforts  that  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Horse  Breeding  was  created.  He  was  also 
a  Jersey  cattle  fancier,  the  herd  at  Elsenham  being 
accounted  one  of  England's  best. 

Like  most  other  men  who  have  accomplished 
things  worth  while  in  animal  breeding.  Sir  Walter 
was  a  profound  student.  He  was  learned  beyond 
most  of  his  contemporaries  in  respect  to  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  British  types,  and  was  the 
author  of  numerous  addresses  and  pamphlets  deal- 
ing with  various  aspects  of  horse  breeding  in  the 
British  islands.  Some  of  these,  notably  **The  Great 
Horse,"  and  "Thoroughbred  and  Other  Ponies,"  were 
published  by  Vinton  &  Go.  in  book  form.  '*The 
Great  Horse"  deals  largely  with  the  remote  ances- 
try of  the  English  Shire  or  Cart  horse.  In  fact  Sir 
Walter  is  commonly  credited  with  having  rescued 
not  only  the  Shire  and  the  Hackney,  but  the  Hunter 
from  deterioration  and  decay.  He  paid  $4,300  for 
the  stallion  Spark  at  a  time  when  the  Cart  horse 
type  was  losing  favor,  and  gathered  a  group  of 
public-spirited  men  together  and  put  the  Shire  Horse 
Stud    Book    of    England   upon   its    feet.     In    1894 


136  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


he  bought  the  Hackney  stallion  Danegelt,  the  best 
horse  of  his  type  in  all  Britain  at  that  date,  for 
$25,000,  in  order  to  prevent  his  sale  for  export,  and 
put  him  in  service  at  Elsenham.  He  got  but  three 
seasons'  use  of  that  celebrated  sire,  but  always 
claimed  that,  notwithstanding  that  fact,  this  was 
one  of  the  best  investments  he  ever  made.  The 
Danegelt  blood  has  ever  since  fairly  dominated  the 
Hackney  world.  Sir  Walter  was  also  the  originator 
of  the  annual  London  Cart  Horse  Parade,  one  of 
the  most  imposing  affairs  of  its  kind  ever  inaugu- 
rated. The  equipment  at  Elsenham  was  one  of  the 
most  complete  in  existence,  the  extensive  and  well- 
arranged  paddocks,  as  well  as  the  riding  and  driving 
schools,  being  recognized  as  among  the  best  in 
Great  Britain. 

At  one  time  Sir  Walter  erected  a  lot  of  model 
cottages  for  his  tenants.  And  here  one  little  inci- 
dent happily  illustrates  his  understanding.  He  saw 
to  it  personally  that  no  washing  was  to  be  done  in 
the  house.  He  built  the  washhouse  apart  from  the 
cottage,  and  the  ugly  coal-hole  likewise.  Said  he: 
"No  man  wants  to  come  home  to  his  dinner  or  his 
supper  and  find  the  place  full  of  steam  and  soap- 
suds." Volumes  of  rural  uplift  are  summed  up  in 
that   phrase.     The   world   needs    more    men   of  the 


CREATORS  OF  PASTORAL  WEALTH         137 


GiLBEY  type — men  whose  sympathies  with  the  agri- 
cultural masses  take  practical  turns. 

Is  it  any  wonder  England  became  the  nursery  of 
so  many  rare  types  of  improved  domestic  animals, 
with  the  finest  minds  and  greatest  fortunes  in  the 
kingdom  so  actively  interested  in  their  welfare? 


XVII 
"THE  HERDSMAN  OF  ABERDEENSHIRE" 

As  a  companion  picture  to  that  of  Charles  and 
Robert  Colling  there  should  be  a  similar  canvas 
portraying  Amos  and  Anthony  Cruickshank.  You 
may  see  the  portrait  of  grim  old  Amos  hanging 
there  just  now  alongside  Thomas  Bates,  whom  he 
in  nowise  resembled;  but  I  have  seen  no  picture  of 
the  brother  who  really  had  a  large  part  in  the 
founding  and  upbuilding  of  the  great  Scottish  herd 
that  turned  England  and  America  topsy-turvy  after 
the  Booth  and  Bates  manias  had  finally  run  their 
course.  Amos  was  the  resident  farm  and  herd 
manager,  and  is  generally  credited  with  the  concep- 
tion of  most  of  the  plans  that  yielded  such  splendid 
ultimate  results;  and  yet  it  was  Anthony's  steadfast 
financial  and  moral  support  and  active,  intelligent 
co-operation  that  made  possible  the  fame  of  that 
"farthest-north"  of  all  great  cattle-breeding  farms 
— Sittyton  of  Straloch  in  Aberdeenshire. 

Mr.  Bates  and  the  Booths  and  their  contempo- 
raries in  the  Shorthorn  ranks  had  beaten  all  other 
breeds  of  cattle  to  the  goal  of  a  lucrative  inter- 
national fame  through  their  prompt  adoption  and 
persistent  practice  of  Robert  Bakewell's  methods; 
but  the  time  at  length  arrived  when  their  followers 

138 


'THE  HERDSMAN  OF  ABERDEENSHIRE"       139 


were  not  only  unhorsed,  through  an  overindulgence 
in  the  theory  of  close  breeding,  but  were  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  palpable  fact  that  while  they 
were  riding  their  pet  hobbies  to  an  inevitable  fall, 
men  possessed  of  penetration  like  unto  that  which 
had  worked  such  wonders  in  Yorkshire,  had  been 
quietly  duplicating  the  triumphs  of  Kirklevington 
and  Warlaby  in  other  quarters.  The  Tomkins,  John 
Price  of  Ryall,  the  Hewers,  Rea  and  Philip  Turner, 
MoNKHOUSE,*'the  blind  breeder  of  The  Stow,"  Rogers, 
TuDGE — the  Hereford  fathers  in  brief — were  laying 
the  foundation  for  the  future  conquest  of  the  western 
American  range  in  the  grassy  vale  of  the  Severn. 
Beyond  the  Tweed,  Barclay  of  Ury,  Robertson  of 
Ladykirk,  Rennie  of  Phantassie,  Hay  of  Shethin, 
Grant  Duff  of  Eden,  Sylvester  Campbell  of  Kin- 
ellar,  the  elder  Marr  of  Uppermill,  the  Gruickshanks 
and  their  contemporaries  had  worked  out  along  inde- 
pendent lines  the  secret  of  how  to  profitably  produce 
prime  beef  in  a  land  where  straw  and  "neeps"  and 
a  bit  o'  cake  had  to  take  the  place  of  luxuriant 
permanent  southern  pastures  in  the  agricultural 
economy.  And  there  were  others  far  beyond  the 
hills  of  Lammermoor  who  contributed  heavily  to 
the  cause  which  finally  landed  "Prime  Scots"  at 
the  top  of   Smithfield   market.     Wm.  McGombie   of 


140  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Tillyfour  and  Hugh  Watson  of  Keillor  were  evolving 
the  *'bonnie  blackies."  In  the  farming  of  the  Aber- 
deenshire granite  there  was  no  place  for  cattle  that 
could  not  pay  the  rent.  They  must  be  a  fast-ripening 
sort,  quick  to  convert  the  roots  and  scant  herbage 
of  the  Northland  into  thick-cutting  beef  at  earliest 
possible  age.  And  so,  side  by  side,  the  builders  of 
the  Aberdeen  polls  and  the  Aberdeenshire  Short- 
horns, each  pursuing  the  same  end  under  different 
flags,  gave  the  world  at  last  the  types  that  have 
divided  with  the  Herefords  the  honors  that  are 
falling  in  these  latter  days  to  the  beef  breeds  in 
our  Chicago  shows  and  markets. 

It  is  to  Amos  and  Anthony  Gruickshank  that 
the  Shorthorn  breeding  world  is  primarily  indebted 
for  the  cattle  that  have  enabled  them  to  meet  the 
great  invasion  of  the  "doddies"  and  the  Herefords. 
After  the  cup  of  the  Booths  and  of  Bates  had  been 
drained  to  the  very  dregs,  when  the  burly  white- 
faces  and  the  richly-furnished,  high-dressing  blacks 
were  pressing  the  colors  of  the  "red,  white  and 
roan"  to  the  very  wall,  it  was  to  the  seed  obtainable 
only  from  good  old  Amos  Gruickshank  that  a  panic- 
stricken  army  of  Shorthorn  supporters  on  both 
sides  the  sea  turned,  and  found  that  which  saved 
them  from  the  great  enveloping  movement  of  the 


'THE  HERDSMAN  OF  ABERDEENSHIRE"       141 


rival  breeds  in  the  early  eighties.  The  silent  sage 
of  Sittyton  deserves  his  place  upon  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  walls. 

It  was  in  a  little  back  room  in  Anthony  Gruigk- 
shank's  place  of  business  in  the  Aberdonian  capital 
that  Barclay  of  Ury,  Grant  Duff  and  a  few  others 
of  that  stamp  met  to  found  the  Royal  Northern 
Agricultural  Society.  Anthony  took  to  banking  and 
merchandising  in  the  city,  but  Amos  remained  out 
on  the  hills.  He  began  in  1837  with  bulls  from 
Ury,  and  until  the  month  of  May,  1889,  a  span  of 
more  than  fifty  years,  he  was  wedded  only  to  his 
cattle.  Antedating  Torr,  he  also  outlived  the  Wizard 
of  Aylesby,  reaping  in  his  own  lifetime  the  reward 
of  the  good  and  faithful  servant  that  he  was.  "The 
herdsman  of  Aberdeenshire,"  the  phrase  often  ap- 
plied in  loving  compliment  by  his  contemporaries, 
meant  as  much  to  him  in  a  region  that  became 
world-famed  for  its  cattle  wisdom,  as  Torr's  title 
of  "the  first  farmer  of  England"  did  to  the  great 
tenant  farmer  of  a  land  more  highly  favored  by 
nature. 

Like  the  elder  Booth,  the  Gruickshanks  were 
omniverous  in  their  quest  for  foundation  stock.  They 
did  not  think  that  the  future  of  the  breed  in  their 
country  hinged  upon  the  purchase  of  any  particular 


142  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


animal  or  animals.  If  Amos  had  possessed  a  clear  and 
fixed  opinion  at  the  start  as  to  what  was  required 
by  his  environments  as  had  Bates  when  he  began, 
possibly  their  success  might  have  been  more  imme- 
diate. But  he  was  the  canny  Scot.  He  would  feel 
his  way.  He  would  follow  no  man's  lead.  Bates 
might  boast  as  much  as  he  liked  of  his  week's 
butter  and  his  Duchess-Princess  style,  refinement 
and  prepotency.  The  nobility  and  gentry  of  the 
south  might  stand  in  line  begging  Booth  to  sell  a 
female  or  lease  a  favorite  sire.  He  came  from  a 
far  country,  where  the  soil  was  not  deep,  the  re- 
wards of  husbandry  not  lavish,  and  where  the  bumps 
of  caution,  tjxrift  and  conservatism  were  fully  devel- 
oped. He  had  little  to  say,  but  he  did  a  deal  of 
thinking.  And  wherever  they  found  a  beast  that  they 
thought  might  serve  their  purpose,  they  bought  it. 
And  so  from  widely  different  sources  both  north 
and  south  o'  Tweed  were  purchased  the  cows,  heifers 
and  bulls  with  which  they  wrought  until  around  1 860. 
Among  these  were  such  excellent  bulls  as  the 
ToRR-bred  Fairfax  Royal;  Matadore,  bred  in  Lincoln- 
shire and  an  own  brother  in  blood  to  Mr.  R.  A. 
Alexander's  celebrated  cow  Mazurka;  Plantagenet, 
bred  by  Towneley  and  bought  from  Douglas  of 
Athelstaneford;   the   pure   Booth   Buckingham,  for 


"THE  HERDSMAN  OF  ABERDEENSHIRE"       145 


which  400  guineas  was  paid;  The  Baron,  selected 
by  Anthony  Gruigkshank  at  a  sale  of  Tanqueray's; 
Lord  Bathurst;  Master  Butterfly  2d,  son  of  the 
1,200-guinea  bull  Master  Butterfly;  Lord  Raglan 
and  Lancaster  Comet.  Prizes  galore  were  won  by 
these  bulls  and  their  get,  but  it  was  not  until  the 
advent  of  Lancaster  Comet  that  the  star  of  Sitty- 
ton  began  its  marked  ascendency. 


XVIII 

WHEN  SUCCESS  CAME  TO  SITTYTON 

We  talk  a  lot  about  scientific  breeding  and  the 
various  accepted  laws  alleged  to  govern  the  trans- 
mission of  individual  characteristics.  From  time 
immemorial  the  phrase  "Like  begets  like"  has  been 
in  a  general  sense  a  commonly  accepted  proposition. 
There  is  sometimes  added  to  this  expression  the 
words,  "or  the  likeness  of  some  ancestor,"  and  in 
this  latter  statement  we  open  wide  the  door  to  all 
sorts  of  variations  from  immediate  paternal  and  ma- 
ternal characteristics.  Stock-breeding  is  by  no  means 
the  simple  mathematical  proposition  represented  by 
the  equation  2+2=4.  The  whole  theory  of  the 
paramount  efficiency  of  close  breeding  grows  out  of 
a  consideration  of  this  "some  ancestor"  proposition; 
the  case  being  summarized  in  the  hypothesis  that 
the  more  we  reduce  the  number  of  unrelated  for- 
bears, the  fewer  chances  we  are  taking  on  a  mere 
leap  in  the  darkness  of  a  multiplicity  of  varying 
individualities.  The  greatest  results  attained  thus 
far  in  the  establishment  of  reliably  prepotent  groups 
have  come  through  this  process  of  eliminating  a 
large  percentage  of  the  unknown  factors  and  substi- 
tuting a  frequent  recurrence  of  identical  or  homoge- 
neous elements  reflecting  the  desired  characteristics. 

144 


WHEN    SUCCESS    CAME    TO    SITTYTON  145 


Prior  to  1860  the  Gruickshanks  were  floundering 
in  a  sea  of  uncertainty,  in  so  far  as  the  production 
of  a  uniformly  good  lot  of  cattle  was  concerned. 
Some  progress  had  been  made  in  this  direction  by 
adherence  in  the  selection  of  new  material  to  ani- 
mals approximating  as  individuals  the  type  sought, 
regardless  of  consanguinity;  but  the  mating  of  two 
animals  of  similar  type  but  of  widely  variant  bloods 
does  not  always  yield  four.  On  the  contrary,  the 
addition  may  turn  out  in  that  case  almost  anything 
from  0  to  9.  The  situation  at  Sittyton  in  this  re- 
spect, after  more  than  twenty  years  of  effort,  did 
not  differ  materially  from  that  in  a  thousand  other 
herds  of  pedigreed  cattle  where  similar  methods 
were  being  pursued.  The  cattle  were  all  of  regu- 
lation herd-book  pattern,  all  qualified  for  the  great 
work  of  regenerating  the  roadside  stock  of  the 
country,  but  had  not  yet  reached  that  point  to 
which  all  enthusiastic  breeders  aspire,  where  the 
surplus  shall  be  eagerly  sought  at  good  values  by 
owners  of  other  purebred  herds. 

A  study  of  the  life-work  of  Amos  Gruickshank 
reveals  one  fact  of  great  importance  and  signifi- 
cance to  the  student.  His  real  success  did  not 
begin  until  he  did,  in  a  way,  what  Thomas  Bates  had 
done.     He  was  by  no  means  so  sure  he  was  right 


146  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


from  the  beginning  as  was  the  great  manipulator  of 
the  Duchess-Hubback-Favorite  line;  but  that  was 
temperamental.  His  admiration  for  the  Lavender 
( or  Lancaster)  family  in  the  hands  of  Wilkinson  of 
Lenton  paralleled  in  a  degree  Mr.  Bates'  historic 
attachment  of  a  generation  previous.  But  mark  the 
difference.  Bates  was  cocksure  of  his  position,  and 
forecast  with  marvelous  accuracy  the  results  he 
notified  the  world  he  was  about  to  achieve.  Re- 
member the  story  of  the  purchase  and  use  of  Bel- 
videre,  and  then  read  of  Gruickshank  halting  on 
the  very  brink  of  complete  success  with  the  blood 
which  he  undoubtedly  believed  to  be  the  best  for  his 
use  in  the  entire  kingdom.  Fortunately,  his  love 
for  the  Lavenders  triumphed  over  his  inborn  wari- 
ness before  it  was  too  late.  We  come  to  the  turn- 
ing point  of  his  career,  the  use  of  Lancaster  Comet. 
Our  good  friend  Robert  Bruce,  formerly  of 
Darlington,  but  now  superintendent  of  the  Royal 
Irish  Show  in  Dublin,  is  one  of  the  best-informed 
men,  cattle-wise,  now  living.  I  once  crossed  the 
Atlantic  with  him  many  years  ago,  and  he  it  was 
who  planned  my  first  itinerary  of  the  British  herds 
of  a  quarter  century  ago.  He  was  the  intermediary 
in  the  final  sale  of  the  Sittyton  cattle  in  1889, 
and    not    even    William    Duthie,    upon  whom    the 


WHEN    SUCCESS    CAME   TO    SITTYTON  147 


mantle  of  the  Aberdonian  Caesar  finally  fell,  enjoyed 
a  more  intimate  or  more  cordial  relationship  with 
Mr.  Gruickshank.  In  the  course  of  certain  reminis- 
cences Mr.  Bruce  once  hit  upon  the  incident  that 
helps  to  unlock  the  secret  of  Sittyton's  success. 
One  has  to  bear  in  mind  Mr.  Cruickshank's  usual 
imperturbability  to  appreciate  how  deeply  he  must 
have  been  moved  upon  the  occasion  to  which  we 
will  now  refer.  Robert  Bruce  relates  that  in  speak- 
ing of  his  first  visit  to  Lenton  to  inspect  Mr. 
Wilkinson's  herd  Mr.  Gruickshank  said:  "After 
seeing  the  cattle  I  was  so  excited  that  when  I  tried 
to  write  to  Anthony  at  night  I  could  not  use  a  pen. 
I  had  to  write  with  a  pencil."  This  little  incident 
proves  two  things:  First,  the  fact  that  in  spite  of 
his  habitual  self-control,  Amos  Gruickshank  pos- 
sessed a  latent  enthusiasm  capable  of  being  thor- 
oughly aroused.  It  indicates  also  that  there  was 
something  in  the  Wilkinson  stock  not  found  in 
other  contemporary  herds. 

In  the  autumn  of  1858  it  was  thought  desirable 
to  purchase  a  stock  bull  for  use  at  Sittyton.  A 
good  young  red  one  was  desired  at  that  time.  Mr. 
Gruickshank  wrote  to  Wilkinson,  inquiring  if  he 
could  furnish  such  a  bull.  He  replied  that  he 
could  not,  but   recommended   old   Lancaster  Comet 


148  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


(11663),  then  in  his  eighth  year,  which  he  offered 
to  sell  at  a  nominal  price.  After  first  examining 
the  herds  of  Mark  Stewart,  S.  E.  Bolden,  Richard 
Booth,  Col.  Towneley  and  Messrs.  Budding  without 
success,  Mr.  Gruickshank  wrote  to  Wilkinson  that 
he  might  ship  Lancaster  Gomet.  He  was  forwarded 
to  Sittyton  in  November,  1868.  Mr.  Gruickshank 
went  to  the  station  to  meet  the  bull,  and  his  first 
glimpse  of  "his  great  head  and  horns  lowering  upon 
him  over  the  side  of  the  truck"  caused  him  to  turn 
away  in  disappointment.  Lancaster  Gomet  had  a 
large  head,  with  horns  of  great  length.  They  were 
well  enough  set  onto  the  head  and  curved  toward 
the  front.  They  were  not  very  thick  nor  were  they 
pointed  at  the  tips,  being  more  uniform  in  thickness 
from  base  to  point  than  is  ordinarily  observed.  One 
sarcastic  neighbor,  of  the  type  often  present  upon 
such  occasions,  remarked:  "If  he  wanted  a  High- 
land bull  he  might  have  got  one  nearer  home." 
Notwithstanding  the  horns,  however,  Lancaster 
Gomet  was  a  good  bull.  He  stood  near  to  the 
ground,  had  a  beautiful  coat  of  hair,  a  round  barrel, 
straight  top  and  bottom  lines,  level  quarters,  nicely 
filled  thighs,  carried  plenty  of  flesh  and  was  active 
on  his  feet.  In  size  he  was  about  medium.  He 
had  been  a  great   favorite  with  Mr.  Wilkinson  and 


WHEN    SUCCESS    CAME    TO    SITTYTON  149 


was  closely  bred,  being  the  product  of  mating  a  bull 
called  The  Queen's  Roan  to  his  half-sister,  both 
parents  being  sired  by  the  good  bull  Will  Honey- 
comb that  had  been  used  for  some  years  by  Mr. 
Wilkinson,  and  was  deemed  worthy  of  illustration  in 
one  of  the  early  volumes  of  Coates'  Herd  Book. 

Lancaster  Comet  was  scarcely  as  massive  as 
Mr.  Gruickshank  would  have  liked  and  was  relegated 
to  the  Glyne  farm,  it  is  said,  *'to  hide  his  horns." 
The  following  spring  he  was  turned  into  a  pasture 
along  with  a  lot  of  cows  that  had  not  settled  to 
the  bulls  by  which  they  had  been  served.  He  ran 
out  quite  late  in  the  field  that  fall,  and  contracted 
rheumatism  so  severely  that  it  became  necessary  to 
send  him  to  the  shambles.  About  a  dozen  calves 
resulted,  but  all  but  one  were  allowed  to  pass  out 
of  the  herd  in  the  ordinary  course  of  trade.  There 
was  a  bull  among  these,  however,  that  possessed  an 
indefinable  something  that  appealed  to  the  master's 
hand  and  eye.  He  made  no  boasts  and  indulged  in 
no  prophecies.  He  just  put  the  youngster  one  side 
and  carefully  noted  his  development.  This  calf  of 
destiny  was  dropped  on  the  29th  of  November,  1859. 
By  1861  he  had  grown  into  a  bull  deemed  good 
enough  to  be  shown  at  Leeds  and  Aberdeen,  but  he 
was  handicapped  for  age   at   the   former  exhibition, 


150  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  left  the  ring  without  a  ribbon.  This  was  a 
Royal  competition  where  the  best  herdsmen  of 
England  had  entered  their  most  highly-fitted  cattle. 
At  the  Royal  Northern  the  young  Sittyton  entry 
was  apparently  not  so  well  thought  of  by  the  judges 
as  by  his  breeder,  and  he  was  set  down  to  third 
place.  This  was  somewhat  discouraging,  more 
especially  as  Anthony,  who  had  most  to  do  with  the 
naming  of  the  youngsters,  had  bestowed  upon  the 
lone  son  of  the  big-horned  old  Wilkinson  bull  the 
somewhat  ponderous  title  "Champion  of  England." 
But  the  race  is  not  always  to  those  who  get  away 
first.  Then  as  now,  however,  showyard  honors  were 
the  prime  basis  of  reputation,  and  reputation  is  what 
brings  buyers  with  full  pocketbooks.  The  Aberdeen 
verdict  was,  therefore,  somewhat  disconcerting,  and 
for  a  time  it  was  questioned  whether  the  unsuccess- 
ful candidate  should  be  retained  for  service  or  passed 
along.  It  was  at  this  critical  juncture  that  Amos 
saved  the  day.  He  went  over  young  Champion  of 
England  carefully,  inch  by  inch,  and  declared,  with 
characteristic  mental  reservation,  in  favor  of  his 
tentative  reservation  and  cautious  use.  The  bull 
was  particularly  strong  on  his  fore-ribs,  developed 
remarkable  feeding  quality,  and  scon  began  to  assume 
more  massive  proportions  than  had  been  displayed 


WHEN    SUCCESS    CAME   TO    SITTYTON  151 


by  his  sire.  He  was  not  so  level  in  his  quarters  as 
Lancaster  Comet,  drooping  a  bit  from  the  hips  to 
the  tail,  a  fault  which  he  probably  inherited  from 
his  dam.  His  calves  soon  evidenced  rare  promise. 
They  were  robust,  thick-fleshed,  near  to  the  ground, 
and  possessed  a  propensity  for  putting  on  flesh 
such  as  had  not  been  shown  by  the  get  of  any  of 
his  predecessors  in  service.  His  owners  now 
resolved  to  use  him  freely  and  not  risk  impairment 
of  his  usefulness  by  putting  him  in  high  condition 
for  the  shows.  Meantime,  the  settled  policy  of  test- 
ing the  best  bulls  obtainable  from  contemporary 
stock  was  not  abandoned. 

The  BooTH-bred  Windsor  Augustus  and  Prince 
Alfred,  the  great  show  bull  Forth,  called  "the  grand- 
est Shorthorn  of  his  time,"  Lord  Privy  Seal,  Baron 
Killerby,  Rob  Roy,  Count  Robert,  Knight  of  the 
Whistle,  and  other  bulls  of  high  repute  were  intro- 
duced into  the  now  extensive  herd  while  the 
Champion  of  England's  get  were  coming  on.  And 
when  they  began  to  mature,  the  Cruickshanks  knew 
their  long  quest  for  the  best  stock  bull  in  Great 
Britain  had  been  ended  by  poor  old  crippled  Lan- 
caster Comet.  The  Champion  of  England's  calves 
came  up  to  the  mark  which  had  for  so  long  eluded 
these  determined,  enterprising  men.     A  fortune  had 


152  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


been  spent  on  bulls,  and  lo!  they  were  nursing 
unawares  a  calf  from  a  plainish  mother  that  had 
been  left  by  the  inbred  Wilkinson  sire  on  their  own 
farm.  One  after  another  of  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  this  the  greatest  stock  bull  Scotland  has  ever 
known,  grew  up  into  cattle  of  the  real  rent-paying 
sort.  Pages  might  be  filled  with  the  names,  pedi- 
grees and  performances  of  his  descendants  in  the 
showyards  and  breeding-pens  of  Britain  and  America, 
but  space  will  not  here  permit.  Such  cows  as 
Village  Belle,  Village  Rose,  Princess  Royal,  Morn- 
ing Star,  British  Queen,  Carmine  Rose,  Silvery, 
Mimulus,  Surmise,  Gircassia,  Violante,  Finella  and 
Victorine  would  alone  suffice  to  make  the  reputation 
of  the  most  ambitious  breeder.  Not  only  were  these 
and  other  of  the  best  of  the  Champion's  heifers 
retained  for  breeding  purposes,  but  his  bulls  were 
given  a  trial  along  with  sires  obtained  from  other 
herds. 

A  long  and  costly  experience  had  by  this  time 
impressed  the  uncertainties  attending  the  intro- 
duction into  a  mixed-bred  herd  of  bulls,  no  matter 
how  satisfactory  their  individuality,  of  widely  diver- 
gent bloodlines,  and  although  it  was  contrary  to 
their  predilections  the  Cruickshanks  were  so  satis- 
fied with  the  hair  and  flesh  and  feeding  quality  of 


WHEN   SUCCESS    CAME    TO    SITTYTON  163 


Champion  of  England's  stock  that  they  determined 
to  begin  a  policy  of  concentration.  This  they  did 
through  the  use  of  such  bulls  as  Grand  Monarque, 
Scotland's  Pride,  Pride  of  the  Isles,  Caesar  Augustus, 
Royal  Duke  of  Gloster,  Roan  Gauntlet,  Barmpton 
and  Cumberland. 

There  is  not  in  Shorthorn  history  a  record  of 
greater  success  attained  in  the  production  of  valu- 
able cattle  for  practical  farm  and  feedlot  purposes 
than  that  which  attended  the  breeding  operations 
at  Sittyton  after  the  practice  of  using  these  home- 
bred bulls  was  adopted.  The  herd  began  at  once 
to  take  on  a  uniformity  in  essential  points  which  it 
had  not  hitherto  possessed,  and  the  further  the 
concentration  of  blood  was  carried — up  to  a  certain 
point — the  better  the  results.  The  fruit  of  Mr. 
Cruickshank's  appeal  to  the  practice  of  inbreeding 
was  the  establishment  of  a  well-fixed  type  of  short- 
legged,  broad-ribbed,  thick-fleshed  cattle  feeding  to 
satisfactory  weights  at  an  early  age;  and  the  same 
concentration  of  blood  that  served  to  fix  these 
desirable  characteristics  insured  the  prepotency  of 
the  stock  for  reproductive  purposes.  The  herd 
became  the  fountain  head  of  Shorthorn  breeding  in 
the  north.  The  Sittyton  bulls  became  the  standard 
sires  of  Scotland.     The    value    of  the   service   the 


154  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Messrs.  Gruickshank  had  rendered  was  now  univer- 
sally conceded  in  their  native  land,  and  leading 
American  breeders  gladly  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege  of  selecting  stock  bulls  from  this  premier 
Aberdeenshire  herd. 

And  so  extensively  was  the  blood  of  Champion 
of  England  doubled,  redoubled  and  doubled  yet 
again  throughout  all  the  years  down  to  1890,  and 
so  universal  was  the  use  of  the  Gruickshank  bulls 
for  the  twenty  years  following,  that  the  bull  which 
the  Leeds  Royal  judges  of  1861  did  not  see  at  all, 
lived  to  become  quite  the  modern  regenerator  of 
his  race;  England  herself,  following  America's  lead, 
finally  falling  into  line  in  the  patronage  of  the 
Aberdeenshire  herd  when  William  Tait  leased  the 
great  Field  Marshal  for  service  in  the  herd  of  Her 
Majesty  the  late  Queen  Victoria,  at  Windsor. 

Mr.  Gruickshank's  agent  for  the  distribution  of 
young  bulls  and  heifers  in  America  for  many  years 
was  the  late  James  I.  Davidson  of  Balsam,  Ont.; 
but  the  man  who  did  most  to  hasten  the  replace- 
ment of  the  long-suffering  BATES-bred  bulls  on  this 
side  the  water  by  the  fleshier,  quicker- feeding 
Sittyton  sorts  was  the  late  Senator  W.  A.  Harris; 
but  that  is  another  story. 


THE    SAJNCTUM    SANCTOIUJM    OF     111!.    s\l)DLE   AND 
SIRLOIN    CLUr> 


^    i.  ', 

Hi* 

' 

BARONIAL   HALL.    SADDLE  AND    SIRLOIN   CLUB 


XIX 

A  BARONIAL  HALL 

The  Club  had  not  been  long  in  operation  before 
it  became  apparent  that  the  original  cafe  was  wholly 
inadequate  to  accommodate  the  distinguished  guests 
that  thronged  the  Club  rooms  during  show  week, 
and  to  provide  for  this,  plans  for  what  has  since 
come  to  be  known  as  "the  baronial  hall"  were 
developed.  The  opening  of  the  International  was 
near  at  hand,  and  it  was  regarded  as  doubtful  if 
the  work  could  be  expedited  sufficiently  to  have  the 
room  in  readiness  at  the  appointed  hour;  but  a 
few  grains  of  the  "I  will"  spirit  injected  into  the 
proposition  insured  prompt  and  satisfying  results. 
Carpenters  and  joiners  were  set  to  work.  Great 
hewn  timbers  were  quickly  fashioned,  and  placed  in 
position  to  support  the  lofty  Gothic  pointed  roof  of 
an  old  baronial  hall.  Plasterers,  electricians  and 
decorators  made  short  shrift  of  a  transformation 
scene  remarkable  for  its  success  and  effectiveness, 
and  when  the  International's  gates  were  thrown 
open  to  the  public  that  year,  the  apparently  impos- 
sible had  been  accomplished. 

In  this  hall  now  hang  many  portraits.  So  many, 
in  fact,  that  we  may  not  here  attempt  to  tell  the 
stories  that  center  around  each  one.    Rest  assured 

15S 


156  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


that  history  and  romance  did  not  end  with  the  days 
of  mail-clad  warriors.  There  is  material  here  for 
books  and  books  detailing  splendid  work  in  the 
foundation  and  upbuilding  of  our  western  states. 
We  may  call  the  massive  frames  upon  the  Sanctum 
Sanctorum  walls  the  "seats  of  the  mighty."  It  is 
there  that  we  bow  down  more  especially  to  the 
creative  genius  of  a  glorious  past.  We  know  those 
deities  by  their  works  and  gladly  render  them  our 
homage.  When  we  come  into  the  baronial  hall, 
however,  we  stand  in  the  presence  of  a  later 
generation.  A  few  there  are  who  had  performed 
their  service  to  the  state  and  to  their  fellowmen 
before  my  day,  but  a  large  majority  of  these  public- 
spirited  men  were  at  one  time  very  near  and  dear 
to  me.  In  my  youth,  in  the  sombre  days  when 
help  to  me  meant  everything,  these  men  were  kind 
and  generous.  When  but  a  mere  student  of  the 
mysteries  of  which  they  were  masters,  trying  to  fit 
myself  to  serve  them,  I  had  ever  a  welcome  warm 
and  cordial  at  their  firesides.  They  were  among 
the  great  men  of  the  American  cattle  trade,  men 
of  wealth  or  brains  or  both,  and  wisdom  abode  with 
them.  I  grew  up  among  these  men,  a  few  of  whom 
are  still  honored  members  of  the  communities  in 
which  they  reside,  but  with  these  exceptions  they 


A    BARONIAL    HALL  157 


have  passed  from  earthly  scenes.  Would  that  I  had 
the  time  to  tell,  and  the  reader  the  patience  to 
listen  to,  the  stories  of  each  and  every  one ! 

The  mere  names  of  such  men  as  Gapt.  James  N. 
Brown,  Gol.  James  W.  Judy,  Hon.  Lafayette  Funk, 
J.  H.  PicKRELL,  Gol.  W.  A.  Harris,  Richard  Gibson, 
N.  P.  Glarke,  Henry  F.  Brown,  Emory  Gobb,  John  D. 
GiLLETT,  George  Harding,  Frank  Prather,  Gharles 
E.  Leonard,  Lewis  F.  Allen,  Ben  F.  Vanmeter  and 
S.  F.  LocKRiDGE  may  mean  but  little  to  the  average 
passer-by,  but  a  story  goes  with  each  that  would  start 
ambition's  glow  in  almost  any  young  man's  breast. 

Once  there  was  a  great  show  of  splendid  animals 
established  in  the  historic  Exposition  Building  that 
stood  where  the  Art  Institute  of  Ghicago  now  houses 
a  different,  and  in  some  respects  a  less  valuable, 
class  of  exhibits.  The  home  of  the  original  Amer- 
ican Fat  Stock  Show  disappeared  before  the  city's 
growth.  An  exhibition  that  had  registered  a  com- 
plete and  in  every  way  desirable  economic  revolution 
in  cattle  production  in  the  United  States  was  driven 
upon  the  streets.  It  had  been  nurtured,  managed 
and  kept  alive  largely  by  the  self-sacrificing  labor 
of  these  baronial  hall  veterans  and  their  contempo- 
raries of  the  Hereford  and  Aberdeen-Angus  faiths, 
with   Lafayette   Funk    usually  at   their  head.     But 


158  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


fate  had  decreed  the  old  show's  demise.  First  it 
was  allowed  to  drift  into  the  street -car  barns  at 
Washington  Boulevard  and  V/'estern  Avenue.  A  de- 
termined few,  however,  insisted  that  so  great  a  boon 
to  the  west  was  worth  saving — someway,  somehow; 
and  so,  when  it  was  all  but  abandoned  to  its  fate, 
it  was  my  own  good  fortune  to  seek  and  obtain 
permission  to  invite  the  exhibitors  the  succeeding 
year  to  send  their  beautifully  fitted  bullocks  to  the 
old  sheds  of  Dexter  Park,  at  the  Union  Stock  Yards. 
However,  the  obsequies  were  not  very  well  attended, 
and  the  once  great  show  perished  from  lack  of  that 
support  to  which  it  had  every  moral  and  financial 
claim.  But  upon  its  ruins  there  has  since  been 
builded  that  of  which  we  are  all  exceedingly  proud. 
I  am  sorely  tempted  here  to  talk  of  Gol.  Judy, 
and  his  convincing  oratory  on  the  auction  block;  of 
Henry  Pickrell  and  Baron  Booth  of  Lancaster;  of 
Ben  Vanmeter,  the  Young  Marys  and  the  Roses  of 
Sharon;  of  N.  P.  Clarke's  splendid  contribution  to 
northwestern  Shorthorn,  Galloway  and  Clydesdale 
wealth;  of  "Charlie"  Leonard's  financing  of  the  Herd 
Book  purchase  from  Lewis  F.  Allen;  of  "Sim"  Lock- 
ridge  and  all  he  has  done  for  Indiana  and  the  west; 
of  the  Prathers  and  Gillett;  but  when  should  I 
ever  finish? 


A    BARONIAL    HALL  159 


Whenever  you  dine  in,  or  wander  through  this 
high-roofed  hall  and  note  the  portraits  here  displayed, 
remember  simply  this:  each  and  every  man  helped 
to  scatter  far  and  wide  the  gospel  of  good  farming, 
better  breeding,  the  salvation  and  re-creation  of  the 
soil  through  animal  husbandry  as  an  absolutely 
essential  phase  of  American  agriculture.  And  here 
again,  as  in  the  "inner  shrine,"  we  may  say  they 
are  but  types.  Hundreds  like  them  have  lived  and 
labored  along  similar  lines  to  the  permanent  better- 
ment of  the  states  of  their  birth  or  their  adoption, 
and  their  portraits  ought  to  be  here.  There  seems 
nothing  to  do  in  the  face  of  this  embarrassment  of 
riches  but  to  submit  typical  recitals  of  things  done 
by  a  few  of  those  who  dwell  in  spirit  within  these 
precincts,  and  from  the  sketches  now  to  follow  let 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  visitors  judge  as  to  what  the 
collection  as  a  whole  must  represent  in  American 
agricultural  progress. 

I  have  spoken  of  there  being  portraits  here  of 
men  who  had  finished  their  work  before  my  time. 
We  will,  therefore,  first  endeavor  to  outline  the 
career  of  a  pioneer  who  did  for  Illinois  what  Charles 
E.  Leonard's  father  did  for  the  state  of  Missouri. 
We  will  then  speak  of  two  of  those  who  at  a  later 
date  were  important  figures  in  proceedings  that  left 


160  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


their  impress  deep  upon  the  agriculture  of  two  con- 
tinents. After  hearing  of  Gapt.  James  N.  Brown, 
Gol.  W.  A.  Harris  and  Richard  Gibson,  an  applica- 
tion of  the  doctrine  ex  pede  Herculem  may  enable 
one  to  form  some  idea  of  the  wealth  of  high 
accomplishment  with  which  this  Valhallan  hall  is 
filled. 


XX 

BEGINNINGS  OF  ILLINOIS  CATTLE- 
BREEDING 

Illustrative  of  the  pioneer  type — men  who  helped 
make  these  middle  western  states,  and  who  left  a 
great  impress  for  good  upon  our  cornbelt  agriculture, 
as  well  as  sons  to  carry  forward  their  beneficent 
plans — I  can  conceive  of  no  better  case  than  that 
afforded  by  Capt.  James  N.  Brown  of  Grove  Park, 
Sangamon  Co.,  111.  What  is  said  to  be  a  very  good 
likeness  of  this  contemporary  and  friend  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  hangs  in  the  baronial  hall. 

Amidst  scenes  famous  the  world  over  for  their 
pastoral  beauty,  James  N.  Brown  was  born  in  Fay- 
ette Co.,  Ky.,  Oct.  1,  1806.  In  the  green  pastures 
and  by  the  still  waters  of  this  central  Kentucky 
home  he  early  imbibed  that  love  for  good  cattle, 
good  horses,  good  sheep,  good  blue  grass,  good  corn- 
fields and  good  farming  that  was  to  prove  of  so 
much  value  to  the  newer  west  in  the  years  that 
followed.  He  was  educated  in  the  common  schools 
of  Kentucky,  finishing  at  Transylvania  University  at 
Lexington.  While  he  followed  his  father  to  Illinois 
in  1834  at  the  age  of  28,  it  appears  from  a  copy  of 
the  Lexington  (Kentucky)  "Observer  and  Reporter," 
printed  Sept.  16,  1835,  containing  among  other  inter- 

161 


162  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


esting  news  matter  of  the  period  an  account  of  a 
fair  held  a  short  time  previous — that  the  young  man 
was  awarded  first  prize  for  his  two-year-old  Short- 
horn heifer  Helen  Eyre,  in  competition  with  some  of 
the  most  eminent  cattle  breeders  of  the  day.  He 
had  obtained  his  first  Shorthorns  from  his  uncle, 
Gapt.  Warfield,  and  surely  he  could  not  have  made 
a  better  beginning,  for  the  names  of  Benjamin, 
Elisha  and  William  Warfield  will  be  forever  famous 
in  the  annals  of  Kentucky  agriculture.  He  had 
seen  enough  of  the  broad-backed,  deep-ribbed,  thick- 
fleshed  and  heavy-milking  cows  in  the  woodland 
pastures  of  his  native  state  to  realize  that  stock  of 
that  description  would  necessarily  prove  a  valuable 
asset  in  the  subduing  of  the  prairies  of  the  west, 
and  he  determined  to  advance  the  flag  that  had 
already  been  successfully  carried  from  Virginia  to 
Kentucky  still  farther  into  the  interior;  and  so  the 
"red,  white  and  roan"  came  by  his  hand  into  the 
land  called  Illinois. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  achievements  of 
Gapt.  Brown  in  his  other  relations  of  life,  the  most 
enduring  basis  of  his  fame  in  the  records  of  his 
adopted  state  will  be  found  to  rest  upon  the  fact 
that  he  was  the  first  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the 
best  way  to  get  the  most  profit  out  of  good  grass 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ILLINOIS    CATTLE-BREEDING  163 


and  good  corn,  without  robbing  the  land  of  its 
fertility,  was  to  stock  it  with  good  cattle.  He  was, 
therefore,  our  first  great  advocate  and  apostle  of 
conservation.  And  when  he  departed  this  life,  in 
1868,  he  left  behind  not  a  run-down,  worn-out, 
ready-to-be-abandoned  farm  that  had  been  worked 
as  a  mine  and  stripped  of  all  its  native  treasures, 
but  the  three  thousand  acres  of  blue-grass  pasture 
known  as  Grove  Park,  tenanted  by  well-bred  animals, 
with  every  acre  richer  than  when  it  came  into  his 
possession! 

Full  details  as  to  his  earliest  operations  in  pure- 
bred live  stock  are  unfortunately  wanting.  All  we 
know  is  that  he  was  the  first  to  bring  the  Short- 
horns from  the  blue  grass  of  Kentucky  into  central 
Illinois,  and  that  as  fast  as  the  early  settlers  were 
able  to  avail  themselves  of  the  benefit  of  his  exam- 
ple, they  profited  by  it.  They  came  to  him  from  far 
and  near,  and  went  away  convinced  that  he  had 
shown  the  way  to  be  pursued.  As  fast  as  they  were 
able  they  bought  the  seed  that  was  to  blossom  into 
the  harvest  that  lies  today  at  the  bottom  of  many 
central  Illinois  fortunes. 

In  the  early  fifties  he  made  a  journey  to  Ohio, 
and  brought  back  the  noted  bull  Young  Whittington, 
that  had  been  imported  from  England  by  the  Sciota 


164  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Valley  Company  in  1852,  and  about  the  same  date, 
in  partnership  with  his  brother  Judge  William  Brown 
of  Jacksonville,  bought  a  number  of  valuable  cattle 
from  leading  Kentucky  breeders.  Meantime,  he  had 
been  elected  to  the  state  legislature  in  1840,  1842, 
1846  and  1853,  serving  in  that  body  as  a  colleague 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  During  this  service  he  intro- 
duced and  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  creating  a 
State  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  was  elected  its  first 
president.  At  the  first  exhibition,  held  at  Springfield 
in  1853,  he  was  met  in  competition  by  Henry  Jacob y, 
Stephen  Dunlap  and  G.  M.  Chambers  of  Sangamon, 
and  others  who  by  this  time  had  become  interested 
in  the  introduction  of  good  blood  into  the  state. 
Upon  that  historic  occasion  Capt.  Brown  carried 
away  six  prizes — the  beginning  of  a  long,  successful 
and  always  honorable  career  as  an  exhibitor  at  this 
show.  The  following  year  he  returned  to  the  fray 
at  Springfield,  and  in  1855  made  his  way  to  Chicago 
to  meet  old  and  new  antagonists.  At  Alton,  in  1856, 
he  broke  a  lance  for  the  first  time  with  James  M.  Hill 
of  Cass  County,  a  man  destined  to  prove  from  that 
time  forward  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel.  On  Sept. 
11,  1856,  a  public  sale  of  Shorthorns  was  held  at 
Grove  Park,  the  top  price  paid  being  $715  for  the 
six-y^ar-old   cow  May  Dacre,  descended    from    the 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ILLINOIS    CATTLE-BREEDING  165 


Sanders  importation  of  1817.    Other  good  specimens 
brought  from  $400  to  $600. 

By  this  time,  thanks  largely  to  Gapt.  Brown's 
persistent  enthusiasm,  interest  in  the  work  of  live- 
stock improvement  was  spreading  rapidly,  and  in 
1857  he  helped  to  organize  the  Illinois  Importing 
Company,  formed  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  out 
fresh  blood  from  the  fountain-head  in  Great  Britain. 
Dr.  H.  G.  John  of  Decatur,  Henry  Jacoby  of  Spring- 
field and  Gapt.  Brown  were  selected  as  a  committee 
to  carry  the  purpose  into  effect.  Of  the  weary 
weeks  of  travel  by  land  and  sea  at  that  date  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  speak.  Money  was  freely 
risked  and  time  and  comfort  sacrificed  in  a  supreme 
eifort  to  place  Illinois  in  the  front  rank  of  this  essen- 
tial branch  of  husbandry.  The  herds  of  England  and 
Scotland  were  seen,  selections  made,  shipment  ar- 
ranged for,  and  the  commissioners  returned.  Weeks 
elapsed  with  no  tidings  of  the  good  ship  ''Georgia" 
that  carried  the  precious  cargo,  and  it  was  only 
when  fears  were  bordering  upon  despair  that  she  was 
finally  reported  safe  at  anchor  at  Philadelphia,  sixty 
days  out  from  Liverpool,  with  several  valuable  cattle 
and  a  fine  Thoroughbred  mare  lost  at  sea.  The  ship- 
ment included,  besides  cattle,  a  choice  selection  of 
Southdown  and  Gotswold  sheep  and  Berkshire  swine, 


166  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  Gapt.  Brown  afterwards  became  a  successful 
breeder  of  these  as  well  as  of  high-bred  horses  of 
the  roadster  type. 

In  accordance  with  the  practice  established  by 
various  companies  of  similar  character  in  Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  the  imported  animals  were  sold  at  auction 
soon  after  their  arrival,  and  the  success  of  the  sale 
was  largely  due  to  the  vigor  and  confidence  with 
which  values  were  supported  by  Gapt.  Brown.  He 
realized  that  at  this  crucial  period  in  the  introduction 
of  the  breed  into  the  prairie  states  those  who  were 
most  actively  espousing  the  cause  of  live-stock  im- 
provement as  a  means  to  a  prosperous  agriculture 
must  show  their  own  faith  by  their  works.  He  knew 
the  advertising  value  of  good  prices.  He  knew  that 
Lewis  Sanders  had  ordered  out  the  great  importation 
of  1817  by  reading  an  account  in  an  English  paper 
of  the  sale  of  Gharles  Gollings'  famous  bull  Gomet 
for  one  thousand  guineas,  his  reasoning  being  that 
if  such  a  public  valuation  were  possible,  it  indicated 
a  degree  of  merit  in  the  breed  that  rendered  such 
animals  an  essential  element  in  the  proper  advance- 
ment of  American  farming.  And  so  we  find  Gapt. 
Brown,  at  the  great  sale  of  the  Illinois  Importing 
Gompany  of  1857,  taking  out  the  choicest  animal 
of    the    entire    offering,    the    two -year- old    heifer 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ILLINOIS    CATTLE-BREEDING  167 


Rachael  2d,  against  the  bids  of  a  syndicate  of  cen- 
tral Illinois  breeders,  at  the  then  very  large  price  of 
$3,025.  This  was  the  second  highest  price  ever 
paid  up  to  that  date  for  a  Shorthorn  female  in 
North  America.  The  sale  was  a  great  success, 
27  head  bringing  $31,455,  an  average  of  $1,165. 
Henry  Jacoby  and  Gapt.  Brown  jointly  acquired  the 
bull  King  Alfred  at  $1,300.  The  heifer  Western 
Lady  also  went  to  Grove  Park  at  $1,325,  and  be- 
came the  ancestress  of  a  very  valuable  family  of 
cattle. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  this  great  importa- 
tion included  the  first  specimens  of  the  afterwards 
famous  Aberdeenshire  type  of  cattle  ever  brought 
into  the  state — four  head  from  the  then  compara- 
tively unknown,  but  subsequently  world-renowned, 
herd  oi  Amos  Gruickshank. 

During  the  years  that  followed,  the  Grove  Park 
Shorthorns  gained  a  national  reputation.  A  constant 
competitor  at  the  State  Fair,  and  a  regular  exhibitor 
at  the  Gounty  Show  of  his  own  beloved  Sangamon, 
Gapt.  Brown's  entries  were  always  presented  in  the 
pink  of  condition,  and  in  the  famous  showyard  battles 
of  the  ensuing  twenty  years  with  Pickrell,  Spears, 
Duncan,  Hill,  Sodowsky,  Taylor,  and  all  the  invading 
hosts  from   other  states,  there  was   never   a   time 


168  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


when  his  exhibits  failed  to  evoke  admiration  and  gain 
judicial  recognition.  To  undertake  to  set  forth  the 
names  and  breeding  of  the  Grove  Park  showyard 
celebrities  would  be  to  place  an  unwarranted  tax 
upon  your  time  and  patience.  One  needs  but  to 
mention  the  names  of  Grace  Young,  Illustrious  and 
Tycoon  to  conjure  in  the  minds  of  the  old-time 
fair-goers  almost  all  that  heart  could  wish  in  the 
line  of  bovine  beauty  and  perfection.  From  1856 
to  1867  inclusive,  for  eleven  years  in  succession, 
the  grand  herd  prize  at  the  Illinois  State  Fair  was 
won  by  Capt.  Brown's  cattle.  At  one  of  the  great 
St.  Louis  fairs,  after  Robert  A.  Alexander's  imported 
Duke  of  Airdrie  had  won  a  special  one-thousand- 
dollar  prize,  the  regular  championship  of  the  show 
was  awarded  to  Capt.  Brown's  imported  King  Alfred. 
No  man  can  calculate  the  money  value  to  Illinois 
and  other  western  states  of  the  example  set  by 
James  N.  Brown  as  a  farmer  and  cattle-breeder. 
He  not  only  won  fame  for  his  fine  cattle,  but  as 
early  as  1856  Grove  Park  was  awarded  the  prize 
offered  by  the  Illinois  State  Board  of  Agriculture 
for  the  best  arranged  and  most  economically  con- 
ducted grazing  farm  in  the  state.  He  was  a  great 
lover  of  trees,  and  his  black  locust  groves  and  lines 
of  black  walnut   called  forth  the  admiration   of   all 


BEGINNINGS    OF    ILLINOIS    CATTLE-BREEDING  169 


visitors.  He  was  also  awarded  a  prize  for  a  valuable 
treatise  on  raising  and  feeding  cattle  on  the  prairies 
of  Illinois.  This  will  be  found  on  page  572  in  volume 
2  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Illinois  Agricultural 
Society. 

Gapt.  Brown  was  the  foremost  advocate  of  the 
value  of  blue  grass  in  this  state.  He  always  claimed 
that  one  hundred  acres  of  it  were  equal  in  value  to 
sixty-six  and  two-thirds  acres  of  corn,  in  the  rearing 
and  management  of  live  stock.  Would  that  his  voice 
could  be  raised  today  by  way  of  protest  against  the 
wholesale  destruction  of  pastures  that  has  attended 
the  grain-growing  craze  of  recent  years  in  our  lead- 
ing agricultural  states! 

During  the  later  years  of  his  life  the  three  sons, 
William,  Charles  and  Benjamin,  were  in  partnership 
with  their  father  in  the  management  of  the  estate, 
and  under  the  firm  name  of  James  N.  Brown's  Sons 
they  continued  the  breeding  and  feeding  operations 
with  profit  to  themselves  and  the  live-stock  interests 
of  the  west,  a  marked  instance  of  their  influence 
for  good  being  their  insistence,  at  the  foundation  of 
the  Chicago  Fat  Stock  Show  late  in  the  seventies, 
that  the  big  four  and  five  year-old  bullocks  then  so 
popular  were  really  unprofitable  and  should  not  be 
encouraged.     Capt.  Brown  had  always  insisted  that 


170  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


early  maturity  was  the  keynote  of  success  in  meat- 
making,  and  his  sons  succeeded  in  inducing  the 
State  Board  of  Agriculture  to  include  in  the  prize 
list  for  the  initial  show  a  class  for  yearlings  and 
calves.  This  they  followed  up  by  winning  first  prize 
on  a  yearling  steer  weighing  1,400  pounds.  They 
thus  pioneered  a  proposition  that  has  revolutionized 
the  American  cattle  trade. 

Adjacent  to  Grove  Park  is  a  hallowed  spot  called 
"Woodwreath."  There  the  blue  grass  he  so  fondly 
loved  runs  riot  perennially  around  the  grave  of 
James  N.  Brown.  The  state  of  Illinois  is  the  better 
for  his  having  lived. 


M 


ROMANELLI'S   BRONZE   BUST   OF  THE  LATE   UNITED   STATES 
SENATOR   WILLIAM   A.    HARRIS.      ERECTED   ON    THE 
CAMPUS    OF   THE    KANSAS   AGRICULTURAL 
COLLEGE    AT    MANHATTAN. 


XXI 
"SET  YE  UP  A  STANDARD  IN  THE  LAND" 

The  Club's  portrait  of  the  late  Senator  Harris 
— Col.  William  A.  Harris  of  Linwood — is  far  from 
satisfying.  Romanelli's  bust,  a  replica  of  which 
may  be  seen  in  Robert  Ogilvie's  office  on  Exchange 
Avenue,  reveals  vastly  more  of  the  real  character 
of  the  man  who  was  apparently  raised  up  by  destiny 
to  overthrow  the  broad  walls  of  a  bovine  Babylon 
and  set  a  great  industry  once  more  in  the  paths 
of  rectitude. 

He  was  my  friend.  Possibly  I  should  stop  at 
that.  So  far  as  I  myself  am  concerned,  volumes 
could  add  nothing  to  those  four  words.  There  were 
others,  many  others,  who  have  felt  the  charm  of  his 
wonderful  personality — who  also  loved  him.  Possibly 
few  of  these  knew  him  as  I  was  privileged  to  know 
him — knew  all  that  I  knew;  but  many  surely  caught 
a  glimpse  at  intervals  of  the  spirit  that  dwelt  within. 
Perhaps  I  may  express  in  some  degree  the  sense  of 
loss  they  feel,  as  they  wait  in  vain  for  him  to  take 
his  accustomed  place;  but  my  own  must  remain 
unspoken  forever.  He  knew  what  I  thought.  I  never 
told  him,  nor  had  any  need  to  tell  him.  This  is  the 
story  of  how  he  leaped  into  leadership  almost  over 
night. 

171 


172  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Upon  another  wall  you  will  find  a  picture  of  that 
pugnacious  old  pioneer,  Lewis  F.  Allen — the  George 
GoATES  of  America — the  man  who  first  collected 
and  published  the  pedigrees  of  our  "Durhams,"  and 
indeed  this  was  no  light  task.  Weary  were  the 
journeys  and  long  were  the  quests  that  preceded 
the  appearance  of  the  initial  volume  of  the  American 
Herd  Book  in  1854.  It  represented,  as  have  all  sim- 
ilar efforts,  before  and  since,  the  assembling  of  the 
best  possible  information  available  concerning  animals 
and  breeding  operations  of  which  but  fragmentary 
records  had  been  preserved.  Gonducted  as  a  private 
enterprise,  the  Herd  Book,  small  and  wholly  profit- 
less for  years,  finally  became  a  valuable  property, 
and  the  subject  of  long  negotiations  and  bitter 
exchanges  between  the  founder  and  those  who  in 
later  years  perforce  became  his  patrons.  It  might 
be  noted  here  in  passing,  that  a  struggling  young 
lawyer  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  named  Grover  Gleveland, 
a  nephew  of  Mr.  Allen's,  once  found  employment 
in  checking  the  pedigrees  of  cattle  forwarded  for 
entry  in  this  Herd  Book. 

Breeders  generally  favored  taking  over  the  record 
from  Mr.  Allen  after  it  had  become  an  important 
public  institution;  but  the  old  man,  stiff-necked 
always,  gave  them  no  encouragement.     Then  they 


SET  YE  UP  A  STANDARD  IN  THE  LAND"     173 


began  to  pick  flaws  in  his  earlier  work,  and  at  length 
openly  revolted  against  what  they  denounced  as  his 
unbearable  tyranny.  Under  the  leadership  of  Judge 
T.  G.  Jones,  who  was  quite  as  belligerent  and  forci- 
ble a  character  in  his  day  as  Mr.  Allen,  the  Ohio 
breeders  established  a  pedigree  record  of  their  own. 
Kentucky  went  still  further,  and  under  the  powerful 
patronage  of  Robert  A.  Alexander  developed  the 
American  Shorthorn  Record  Association,  with  a 
membership  distributed  all  through  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  States,  and  began  the  publication  of 
a  register  which  subsequently  proved  to  be  the  lever 
necessary  for  prying  Mr.  Allen  off  his  high  Herd 
Book  horse.     But  that  is  another  story. 

In  March,  1882,  a  regular  meeting  of  this  new 
Kentucky  organization  was  being  held  at  Lexington. 
"The  Breeder's  Gazette"  had  just  been  established, 
and  I  was  sent  to  report  the  proceedings.  There  I 
met  for  the  first  time  Gol.  William  A.  Harris,  then 
of  Lawrence,  Kans.,  a  Director  in  the  Record  Asso- 
ciation. Among  his  Kentucky  friends  and  admirers 
he  was  at  his  best.  Born  at  Luray,  Va.,  the  son 
of  a  former  member  of  Gongress  and  one-time  Min- 
ister of  the  United  States  to  Rio  Janiero,  Harris 
was  a  student  at  the  historic  Virginia  Military 
Institute  at  the  outbreak  of  the   Civil  War,  a   pupil 


174  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


of  the  professor  so  swiftly  to  rise  to  fame  as  Gen. 
"Stonewall"  Jackson.  The  senior  Harris  was 
opposed,  as  were  so  many  other  Virginians  of  that 
fateful  period,  to  secession;  but  when  the  Old 
Dominion  decided  to  ''go  out,"  his  son  was  one  of 
the  first  to  respond  to  the  call  of  his  beloved 
native  state.  Proof  of  his  rare  gifts  were  not  of 
slow  development.  His  splendid  mental  and  physi- 
cal endowments  marked  him  early  as  a  born  leader 
of  men,  and  by  the  time  Gettysburg  was  reached 
he  was  Chief  of  Ordnance  of  a  Division  in  Long- 
street's  corps  in  the  Army  of  Virginia  under 
Robert  E.  Lee.  In  later  years  a  study  of  Lee's 
characteristics  led  me  to  discover  many  points  of 
resemblance  between  the  idol  of  the  Confederacy 
and  Col.  William  A.  Harris.  After  Gettysburg  the 
young  officer  went  home  on  furlough,  and  with 
prophetic  vision  declared  that  the  war  was  over. 
The  beginning  of  the  end,  he  could  clearly  see,  had 
been  reached  upon  that  bloody  battlefield.  The  war 
left  the  Harris  fortune  a  wreck,  and  the  young 
engineer  went  out  into  the  great  new  west  to  seek 
his  fortune.  Employed  in  locating  the  Kansas 
Pacific  R.  R.  line  from  Kansas  City  to  Denver — 
now  a  part  of  the  Union  Pacific — Col.  Harris,  with 
his  inborn  love  of  country  life  and  well-bred  animals, 


SET    YE    UP    A    STANDARD    IN    THE    LAND"  176 


was  impressed  one  day  by  the  beauty  and  obvious 
fertility  of  a  tract  of  land  converging  near  the  sur- 
vey for  the  line  as  it  skirted  the  north  bank  of  the 
Kansas  River  some  25  miles  west  of  Kansas  City. 
He  took  out  his  notebook  and  made  a  memo- 
randum as  to  its  location.  Months  passed.  The 
rails  were  going  down  and  trains  were  put  in  ser- 
vice. A  capable  man  was  wanted  to  take  charge 
of  the  sale  of  the  railway's  land  holdings  that  were 
a  part  of  the  Government's  subsidy  to  the  builders 
of  the  road.  Harris  was  chosen  and  went  to  the 
beautiful  little  city  of  Lawrence  to  make  his  home 
and  headquarters.  The  entry  in  his  notebook  had 
not  been  forgotten.  The  tract  of  land — afterwards 
to  acquire  fame  under  his  control — was  purchased, 
and  as  rapidly  as  funds  could  be  spared  for  the 
purpose,  purebred  Shorthorns  were  accumulated  and 
put  upon  what  Goburn  always  fondly  called  "the 
sunny  slopes  of  Lin  wood." 

Several  busy  years  then  supervened,  and  the 
first  great  campaign  for  settling  up  the  dry  lands 
of  west  Kansas  was  inaugurated.  For  awhile 
Harris  handled  it;  but  as  the  criminal  character, 
from  his  standpoint,  of  the  proceeding  of  enticing 
"butchers  and  bakers  and  candlestick  makers"  away 
from  comfortable    homes    farther    east,    and    luring 


176  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


them  out  to  their  inevitable  ruin,  became  more  and 
more  manifest,  his  conscience  asserted  itself  and  a 
lucrative  position  with  exceptional  opportunities  for 
enriching  himself  at  the  expense  of  innocent  and 
trusting  immigrants  was  voluntarily  abandoned.  For 
a  considerable  time  he  continued  to  maintain  his 
Lawrence  office.  The  Government  gave  him  charge 
of  the  closing  out  of  the  Delaware  Indian  Reserva- 
tion lands.  Needless  to  say,  no  tainted  penny  ever 
found  its  way  into  his  none-too-comfortable  personal 
bank  account  during  his  incumbency  of  that  office. 
Meantime,  he  was  preparing  Linwood  Farm  for  his 
own  home,  with  his  heart  set  upon  cattle-breeding 
as  a  vocation  worthy  of  any  man,  and  particularly 
demanded  in  the  midst  of  a  new  and  but  partially 
developed  agriculture  in  a  land  specially  blessed  by 
nature.  He  was  just  entering  upon  this  fruitful 
period  of  his  career  when  I  had  the  great  good 
fortune  to  meet  him  that  day  in  March  at  the  Blue 
Grass  capital  in  1882. 

In  his  room  at  the  old  Phoenix  Hotel  in  Lexing- 
ton, after  the  adjournment  of  the  Record  meeting, 
I  told  him  that  I  intended  making  a  tour  of  the 
leading  Kentucky  herds  before  returning  to  Chicago. 
He  replied  that  he  was  just  then  looking  for  a  new 
bull  to  put  in  service  at  Linwood,  and  was  to  begin 


SET  YE  UP  A  STANDARD  IN  THE  LAND"     177 


his  search  on  the  following  day,  proposing  that  we 
make  the  rounds  of  the  larger  establishments  to- 
gether. I  had  been  strongly  attracted  to  him  from 
the  first,  and  of  course  gladly  assented  to  his  prop- 
osition. That  was  the  commencement  of  as  firmly 
rooted  an  attachment  as  could  well  exist  between 
men.  Together  we  tramped  about  those  wonderful 
woodland  pastures  by  day,  and  together  we  roomed 
at  night.  The  evenings  passed  all  too  quickly  around 
a  roaring,  open  fire  with  gracious  hosts  and  charming 
hostesses,  and  when  we  would  retire  to  our  room 
for  the  night  we  would  compare  notes  and  exchange 
ideas  as  to  the  merits  or  faults  of  what  had  been 
seen  in  the  fields  and  boxes.  Horses  and  dogs  came 
into  the  discussion,  but  Shorthorns — always  Short- 
horns. Grasses,  orchards,  homes,  stone  walls,  roads 
and  gardens,  the  whole  life  of  the  people  in  that 
American  Yorkshire,  in  fact,  all  came  in  for  a  share 
of  consideration,  and  presently  the  glow  of  a  great 
enthusiasm  in  reference  to  all  those  things  took  full 
possession  of  my  youthful  spirit.  Some  faint  reflec- 
tions of  that  first  great  wave  of  interest  in  the 
better  things  that  go  with  country  living  still  possess 
my  soul,  but  the  primal  inspiration  came  with  all- 
compelling  force  under  the  tutelage  of  this  great 
Virginian.     We    were   in   the   land   of    my    fathers. 


178  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Born  and  reared  on  the  Iowa  prairies,  this  was  my 
first  introduction  to  the  "old  Kentucky  home," 
where  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  a  grand- 
mother of  saintly  memory  had  become  the  bride  of 
one  of  the  pioneers  that  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge 
to  begin  life  in  the  valley  of  Kentucky. 

One  night  we  had  been  the  guests  of  the  late 
Mr.  A.  L.  Hamilton,  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of 
one  of  the  makers  of  Kentucky  cattle  history — Ben 
F.  Vanmeter.  What  memories  are  indeed  recalled  by 
the  mention  of  that  name!  Gol.  Harris,  like  practi- 
cally all  other  western  breeders  of  that  period,  had 
stocked  up  with  BATES-crossed  cattle.  Unlike  many 
of  his  contemporaries,  however,  I  soon  discovered 
that  he  was  not  merely  in  quest  of  that  which 
might  fairly  be  expected  to  prove  immediately  prof- 
itable. Others  were  buying  and  selling  very  largely 
at  that  time  on  the  strength  of  the  reputation  of 
the  ancestors  of  the  cattle  they  were  handling, 
rather  than  upon  the  real  excellence  of  the  animals 
themselves  for  practical  farm  and  feedlot  purposes. 
And  this  easy  course  seemed  a  royal  road  to  suc- 
cess. **Buy  a  Barrington  for  $3,500,  because  some 
other  fancier  looking  for  the  Bates  blood  will  come 
along  and  give  you  as  much,  perhaps  more,  for  the 
first  calf."    That  was  the  recognized  basis  of  values, 


"SET  YE  UP  A  STANDARD  IN  THE  LAND"     179 


but  Harris  did  not  approve  of  it.  Moveover,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  say  so,  even  in  the  very  hotbed 
of  that  propaganda.  Upon  "Archie"  Hamilton's 
library  table  there  chanced  to  lie  a  copy  of  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "Catalogue  of  Shorthorn  Cattle, 
the  property  of  the  Messrs.  Cruickshank,  Sittyton, 
Aberdeenshire,  Scotland."  During  some  lull  in  the 
conversation  Col.  Harris  arose  and  walked  about 
the  room.  He  chanced  to  pass  the  table,  and  with 
a  slight  show  of  interest  noticed  this  foreign-looking 
catalogue,  and  picked  it  up.  Turning  to  me  he 
asked:  "Have  you  ever  seen  any  of  these  Aber- 
deenshire cattle?"  I  knew  instantly  what  was  pass- 
ing in  his  mind.  He  had  not  yet  found  a  bull  in 
the  herds  we  had  examined  that  met  his  ideas  of 
what  was  needed  to  enable  the  Shorthorn  to  com- 
pete with  the  Hereford  on  Kansas  grass  and  corn. 
He  had  admired  many  of  the  cows  and  heifers  we 
had  seen.  The  heifers  by  the  20th  Duke  of  Air- 
drie  in  particular  I  remember  attracted  us  by  their 
uniformity  and  finish,  but  as  yet  no  bull  had  been 
found  that  was  short  enough  on  the  leg,  deep 
enough  through  the  chest,  low  enough  in  twist  and 
flank,  and  we  had  almost  finished  our  tour. 

Bound   to   these   genial   Kentuckians  by  ties  of 
blood,  kindred  spirit  with  them  in  all  that  is  meant 


180  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


by  residence  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  flat- 
tered by  them,  honored  by  them,  how  natural  for 
the  Colonel  to  work  hand  in  glove  with  them  in 
this  cattle  business,  as  most  other  men  with  south- 
ern connections  had  done,  and,  in  fact,  were  still 
doing,  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri  and  Kansas. 
They  could  not  understand  why  they  had  been 
unable  to  sell  him  a  bull.  Had  they  not  offered 
him  their  bluest  blood,  and  at  special  prices?  Even 
then  they  were  shrewd  enough  to  discern  in  this 
gracious  but  determined  man  a  character  to  be 
reckoned  with.  But  he  was  about  to  go  home,  as 
the  auctioneers  say,  "bull-less"  in  spite  of  their 
best  endeavors. 

"Yes,"  I  replied  to  the  query  about  the  Scotch- 
bred  cattle,  '1  have  seen  a  few  of  them,  but  you 
know  they  are  not  numerous.  You  know  what  the 
imported  Duke  of  Richmond  has  done  for  J.  H. 
PoTTS  &  Son;  and  an  old  Scotchman,  Robert  Milne, 
near  Lockport,  III,  has  had  the  blood  for  a  long 
time."  The  next  question  was,  "What  do  you  think 
of  them?"  My  answer  was  that  they  were  much 
thicker-fleshed  than  the  cattle  we  had  seen  in  Ken- 
tucky, standing  nearer  to  the  ground,  and  that  the 
get  of  the  few  Aberdeenshire  bulls  in  the  country 
were   beginning   to   win   most   of   the  prizes  at  our 


SET  YE  UP  A  STANDARD  IN  THE  LAND"     181 


northern  fairs;  but  I  hastened  to  add,  "they  are  not 
looked  upon  with  favor  by  leading  breeders,  because 
they  say  that  these  cattle,  while  good  beef  animals, 
are  too  plainly-bred  to  be  introduced  into  first-class 
herds." 

Sounds  funny  now,  doesn't  it,  in  the  light  of  all 
that  has  since  transpired?  but  it  was  a  truthful 
answer  then.  At  that  moment  our  host  re-entered 
the  room,  and  the  Sittyton  catalogue,  with  all  that 
it  meant  at  that  hour  to  the  future  of  the  breed  in 
England  and  America,  was  for  the  time  being  dis- 
missed altogether  from  our  minds.  At  length  our 
delightful  pilgrimage  had  reached  its  termination. 
Although  Gol.  Harris  was  at  this  time  my  senior 
by  many  years,  we  were  both  at  the  threshold  alike 
as  students  of  the  existing  situation  in  respect  to 
pedigree  cattle-breeding.  This  chance  meeting  had 
revealed  to  my  mind  a  new  viewpoint.  It  had  not 
up  to  this  time  occurred  to  me  that  the  headlong 
BATEs-ward  drift  in  the  Shorthorn  trade  could  or 
would  be  checked.  I  took  it  for  granted  at  that 
time  that  ''whatever  was"  in  the  Shorthorn  world 
at  that  date  "was  right."  It  was  Gol.  Harris'  in- 
sistent reiteration  of  the  absolute  necessity  for  cattle 
of  greater  constitution  and  feeding  capacity  and  his 
absolute  refusal  of  the  Bates  bait  so  alluringly  set 


182  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


before  him  in  Kentucky,  together  with  his  evident 
determination  to  try  and  find  something  better 
adapted  to  Kansas  needs,  that  opened  up  to  my 
mind  for  the  first  time  a  vision  of  a  way  out  from 
the  thralldom  which  was  slowly  but  surely  relegating 
the  Shorthorn  of  song  and  story  to  the  bovine 
scrapheap,  so  far  as  the  needs  of  ordinary  farmers 
and  feeders  were  concerned.  The  mere  traffic  in 
pedigrees  was  having  its  inevitable  result.  Commer- 
cialism had  completely  displaced  constructive  breed- 
ing. The  old  excellence  was  dying  hard,  however. 
Such  a  cow  as  old  imported  Lally  8th  by  7th  Duke 
of  York  in  the  Hamilton  herd  was  a  great  Short- 
horn in  any  age,  and  she  was  not  alone.  Still  the 
bulls  that  were  up  to  standard  were  few  and  far 
between,  and  so  when  this  great  man  of  whom  I 
write  left  Kentucky  in  the  early  spring  of  three  and 
thirty  years  ago  for  his  Kansas  home,  a  new  era  in 
the  world's  Shorthorn  cattle-breeding  had  been 
unconsciously  ushered  in.  His  parting  words  were: 
"If  you  can  locate  any  good  young  cattle  of  this 
Gruickshank  blood  for  sale,  wire  me  at  once." 

In  an  earlier  sketch  I  have  alluded  to  various 
debts,  agriculturally  speaking,  we  owe  to  our  neigh- 
bors of  the  north.  Canada  was  now  to  become  the 
source  of  the  blood  that  was  about  to  revolutionize 


"SET    YE    UP    A    STANDARD    IN    THE    LAND"  183 


the  fortunes  of  our  most  widely  disseminated  breed. 
James  I.  Davidson,  whose  portrait  you  will  enjoy 
studying  when  you  find  it  upon  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  walls,  an  old  friend  of  Amos  Gruickshank, 
had  been  for  some  time  past  bringing  out  small 
selections  of  young  bulls  and  a  few  heifers  from 
the  Sittyton  surplus.  Aside  from  the  celebrated 
Hillhurst  and  Bow  Park  establishments,  the  Bates 
cult  had  never  attained  as  much  headway  in  Canada 
as  in  England  and  the  ''States."  Ontario  is  a  western 
Scotland.  Scotch  names,  Scotch  thrift,  Scotch  thor- 
oughness in  tillage  and  Scotch  insistence  on  practi- 
cally useful  animal  types  are  much  in  evidence. 
Toronto  is  its  Aberdeen.  There  its  farming  and 
stock-breeding  activities  center.  There  is  held  an 
agricultural  show  not  excelled,  if  equaled,  in  many 
respects,  elsewhere  on  the  continent.  There,  as  we 
have  already  said,  our  own  "International"  was  first 
conceived. 

These  good  Ontario  farmers  had  for  a  long  time 
quietly  absorbed  such  importations  as  were  made 
from  Aberdeenshire.  Such  men  as  John  Dryden 
and  the  Millers  were  alive  to  the  value  of  the 
North  Country  rent-paying  sort;  but  until  Col.  Wil- 
liam A.  Harris  arrived  upon  the  scene  in  the 
western   states,   the   introduction   of   the   type   had 


184  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


not  been  pressed  with  any  vigor  or  with  any  partic- 
ular success.  Potts  and  a  few  showmen  here  and 
there  were  breeding  from  Aberdeenshire  anteced- 
ents, but  had  not  succeeded  specially,  as  George 
Ade  would  say,  in  "breaking  into  polite  society" 
with  their  low- headed,  compactly- fashioned,  beefy 
favorites,  many  of  which  had  plain  horns  and 
*'dumpy"  quarters.  They  were  'plebeian"  by  birth, 
and  the  bulls  could  not  see  over  a  fence!  They 
had  big  middles,  that  was  true,  but  they  were  bad 
at  both  ends!  Moreover,  they  would  not  milk!  They 
were  all  right  for  a  plodding  farmer  perhaps,  but  as 
ornaments  to  a  gentleman's  park  or  pasture  not  to 
be  seriously  considered.  Such  were  some  of  the 
comments  of  the  entrenched  powers  of  that  time. 
The  large  holders  of  the  Bates  blood  looked  upon 
them  with  undisguised  contempt,  or  at  least  so 
pretended.  Down  in  their  hearts  many  of  them 
realized  that  the  fine  cattle  they  had  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  preceding  generation  had  not  been 
fairly  or  judiciously  handled.  They  had  indeed  sown 
the  wind,  and  were  now  about  to  reap  the  tornado 
invited  by  their  own  indifference,  and  in  due  course 
it  came  from  Kansas. 

Among  those  who  had  protested  earnestly  against 
the  rapidly  accelerating  loss  of  stamina  and  practi- 


"SET  YE  UP  A  STANDARD  IN  THE  LAND"     185 


cal  utility  in  our  western  cattle,  due  to  excessively 
incestuous  and  illy-considered  close  breeding,  was 
James  H.  Kissinger  of  Glarksville,  Mo.;  and,  by  the 
way,  where  is  his  portrait?  As  yet,  echo  only 
answers,  "where!"  He  had  once  been  in  partner- 
ship with  the  late  J.  H.  Pickrell  of  Harristown,  111. 
— whose  picture  we  are  glad  to  say  is  in  the  Club 
collection — and  together  these  two  broad-gauged, 
old-time  cattlemen  had  brought  into  Illinois,  Iowa 
and  Missouri  some  of  the  best  Shorthorns  yet  pro- 
duced. Kissinger  had  already  been  in  close  touch 
with  ''Uncle  Jimmy"  Davidson,  and  was  buying  Aber- 
deenshire cattle  from  him.  Shortly  after  my  return 
from  Lexington  with  a  virtual  commission  from  Gol. 
Harris,  I  was  advised  that  Kissinger  proposed 
offering  a  few  recently  imported  Gruickshank  cattle 
which  he  had  just  brought  in  from  Davidson's. 
This  information  I  promptly  put  in  possession  of 
the  laird  of  Linwood.  The  sale  date  was  announced, 
and  Harris  was  early  on  the  ground.  He  was  out- 
spoken in  his  praise  of  these  blocky,  sturdy-looking 
imported  cattle,  declaring  them  to  be  in  his  opinion 
exactly  what  was  needed  to  correct  the  growing 
tendency  toward  lightness  of  flesh,  and  loss  of  feed- 
ing quality,  in  cornbelt  cattle  stocks.  He  was 
already  looked  up  to  by  many  of  the  most  practical 


186  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


cattle-growers  in  the  splendid  blue-grass  country  of 
which  Kansas  Gity  is  the  capital,  and  those  who  had 
not  large  sums  already  invested  in  the  prevailing 
popular  type  were  more  than  ready  to  range  them- 
selves under  his  progressive  and  virile  leadership. 
Before  the  Kissinger  sale  was  opened,  Harris 
had  seen  and  admired  a  young  red  bull  of  the 
Gruickshank  blood  which  had  been  retained  by  the 
seller  for  his  own  use.  He  was  the  type  that  had 
been  sought,  but  not  found,  during  the  Kentucky 
quest.  Approached  in  the  forenoon  of  the  day  of 
sale  upon  the  subject  of  parting  with  this  good 
yearling,  Kissinger  at  first  declined  to  consider 
selling  him;  but  wisely  enough  he  finally  decided 
that  here  was  a  chance  to  interest  and  identify 
with  the  slowly-moving  cause  in  which  he  was  so 
deeply  concerned,  a  man  who  was  certain  to  have 
many  followers,  and  he  agreed  to  let  the  bull  go 
into  the  ring,  provided  the  Golonel  on  his  part 
would  undertake  to  see  that  the  youngster  made 
not  less  than  $1,000.  The  bull  was  Baron  Victor. 
He  went  to  Linwood  at  $1,100,  and  within  three 
years  had  turned  the  Shorthorn  business  of  the 
Kansas  Gity  territory  upside  down.  Along  with  him 
from  this  same  sale  went  the  three  thick  imported 
heifers,  Violet's  Bud,  Victoria  63d  and  Victoria  69th. 


XXII 

THE  SUNNY  SLOPES  OF  LINWOOD 

The  bull  lots  at  Lin  wood  were  ideal — woodland 
richly  set  in  blue  grass,  surrounded  by  substantial 
stone  walls  and  each  provided  with  an  open  shed 
for  shelter.  My  first  visit  was  made  shortly  after 
the  original  Sittyton  quartet  arrived  at  their  Kan- 
sas destination.  In  the  lot  skirted  by  the  highway 
leading  down  to  Linwood  station  stood  young  Baron 
Victor.  He  has  been  dead  for  many  a  year,  and 
his  great  sons  and  grandsons  have  also  long  since 
gone  the  way  of  all  flesh;  but  the  picture  of  the 
Baron  as  he  stood  there  in  the  midst  of  rare 
sylvan  surroundings  in  June,  1882,  has  but  one 
companion-piece  in  my  memories  of  similar  scenes. 
One  day  at  Tillycairn  William  Duthie's  Scottish 
Archer,  standing  knee-deep  in  an  Aberdeenshire 
pasture,  was  flashed  upon  my  vision.  That  has  not 
yet  been  forgotten.  And  so  with  the  son  of  Barmp- 
ton  that  had  come  to  Linwood  to  start  western 
American  Shorthorn  breeding  upon  a  new  and  saner 
course.  He  looked  every  inch  a  bull,  masculine 
from  the  tip  of  his  none-too-attractive  horns  to  his 
heels.  Wiseacres  shook  their  heads  as  they  looked 
at  that  strongly  individualized  front.  "Bad  horns!" 
Yes,  it   is   true,  they  were   heavy  and   they  had  a 

187 


188  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


tendency  to  bend  upwards  that  was  not  altogether 
pleasing  to  those  who  sought  beauty  first  in  looking 
at  a  Shorthorn.  At  that  time  Gol.  Harris  did  not 
know  the  story  of  old  Lancaster  Comet,  as  referred 
to  elsewhere  in  these  sketches.  If  so,  he  would 
have  had  readier  answer  to  these  critics.  The 
Baron  was  a  richly- colored  red,  not  the  blackish- 
red  that  so  persisted  in  the  descendants  of  the 
$  17,900  14th  Duke  of  Thornedale,  but  verging  on 
the  yellow  side — that  golden  skin  that  was  once 
one  of  the  crowning  glories  of  Abram  Renick's 
Roses  of  Sharon.  He  had  the  short,  broad  face,  wide 
between  his  full  bright  eyes,  that  is  the  almost 
unerring  sign  of  the  quick  feeder,  the  good  "doer," 
and  as  he  grew  to  maturity  he  developed  a  wealth 
of  curly  hair  about  the  horn-base  and  across  the 
forehead.  In  after  years  Gol.  Harris — who  was  one 
of  the  closest  students  of  hereditary  power  I  have 
ever  known — often  spoke  of  this  latter  characteristic 
as  an  almost  infallible  sign  of  prepotency.  Of 
course  if  these  locks  grew  upon  the  head  of  a  bull 
not  satisfactory  in  point  of  general  conformation, 
that  would  count  against  rather  than  for  him,  be- 
cause in  the  case  mentioned  it  would  forecast  the 
stamping  of  undesirable  points;  but  Gol.  Harris 
always  held  the  long,  curly  frontlet  to  be  a  marked 


THE    SUNNY    SLOPES    OF    LINWOOD  ,         189 


indication  of  constitutional  vigor,  and  if  the  curls 
extended  back  along  the  neck,  so  much  the  better. 
Hereford  bulls  usually  have  it.  Bison  bulls  always 
carry  it  in  profusion,  and  there  are  none  to  question 
their  iron  constitutions. 

Baron  Victor  had  a  thick,  short  neck  running 
quickly  into  a  chine  of  exceptional  width.  The 
shoulders  were  heavy  as  in  the  case  of  all  really 
masculine  bulls,  but  well  placed,  and  there  was  a 
world  of  lung  and  heart  room  beneath  his  wide- 
flung  foreribs.  The  back  was  broad,  and  loin  deeply 
covered  with  good  mellow  flesh.  Back  of  the  hips 
he  showed  a  little  of  the  traditional  Gruickshank 
weakness,  but  the  quarter  was  long  and  heavy, 
flanks  full  and  twist  well  let  down.  He  had  ample 
bone,  the  shortest  of  legs,  and  in  his  prime  moved 
with  singular  freedom  and  precision.  One  often 
hears  the  expression  that  certain  animals  possess 
"strong  character."  In  human  kind  the  word  may 
have  reference  to  morals,  or  at  least  to  things 
rather  more  esthetic  than  are  contemplated  when 
the  term  is  employed  in  bovine  description.  In  the 
case  of  a  bull  it  means  that  he  has  an  individuality 
of  his  own  as  distinguished  from  the  common  herd; 
that  there  is  something  in  his  head  and  eye  that 
says:    **I  am  I  myself;  not  any  old  animal."     There 


190  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


have  been  bulls,  for  example,  like  the  enormous 
flesh-carrier  Young  Abbotsburn  of  Canadian  and 
Columbian  Exposition  fame,  that  carried  wonderful 
carcasses  of  thick-cutting  beef.  His  head  was  the 
head  of  a  feeder,  short  and  broad,  but  there  was 
little  or  no  expression  in  his  countenance;  none  of 
that  commanding  clear- the -way  presence  that  dis- 
tinguishes the  "I  am  here"  type  of  the  vigorous 
male.  All  over  his  physiognomy  was  written  docil- 
ity and  "I  don't  give  a  rap  what  happens  so  long 
as  I  get  my  meals."  And  he  sired  but  few  out- 
standing cattle.  History  must  give  him  credit  for 
the  champion  show  cow  Mary  Abbotsburn;  but  she 
came  near  being  the  one  exception  that  proved  the 
rule.  Not  so,  however,  with  Baron  Victor.  His 
was  a  lordly  port.  A  glance  from  him,  like  the 
royal  request,  was  an  understood  command.  Not 
that  he  was  ugly,  for  he  was  not,  but  he  knew 
what  he  had  come  into  the  cattle  kingdom  for,  and 
insisted  upon  his  proper  rights  and  prerogatives  as 
master  of  the  harem.  A  few  younger  bulls  were 
usually  allowed  to  run  with  him  for  company. 

It  is  now  near  thirty  years  ago.  It  may  be  that 
memory  is  not  as  trustworthy  as  in  my  earlier  days; 
it  may  be  that  the  sharp  contrast  of  type  presented 
at  that  date  heightens  the  effect;   but  I  am  bound 


THE  SUNNY  SLOPES  OF  LINWOOD         191 


to  say  here,  that  while  I  have  in  my  time  visited 
^  many  of  the  greatest  beef-cattle  breeding  establish- 
ments of  the  world,  I  recall  no  such  extraordinary 
groups  of  youngsters  as  those  sent  into  leading 
western  sales  and  shows  from  Linwood  Farm, 
the  first  fruits  of  the  use  of  Baron  Victor  in  the 
Harris  herd.  The  cross  upon  the  BATES-topped 
Marys,  Josephines,  Roses  of  Sharon  and  other 
typical  American  tribes  of  that  era  was  as  amazing 
as  it  was  instantaneously  successful.  The  aggres- 
sive, rich-fleshed,  blocky  Sittyton  Victoria  bull  nicked 
in  such  startling  fashion  that  the  west  looked  on 
in  wonder.  Such  hair,  such  depth  of  covering,  such 
breadth  of  beam,  such  shortness  of  leg,  such  early 
maturity — the  cornbelt's  dream  of  baby  beef  realized 
at  last! 

Breeders  from  far  and  near  were  overjoyed.  The 
long-looked-for  leader,  and  the  long-sought  cross, 
had  arrived.  "The  Gruickshank  bull's  the  thing.** 
That  was  the  unanimous  verdict  of  all  unprejudiced 
beef-producers  who  saw  those  first  famous  line-ups 
of  the  Baron  Victor  progeny  at  the  Kansas  City 
sales.  The  half-bloods  went  like  hot  cakes  at  remu- 
nerative prices,  and  just  to  show  how  the  pure  blood 
had  worked  out  in  comparison  with  the  "crosses," 
Victoria    63d's    sappy  heifer,  Linwood  Victoria    by 


192  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 

Baron  Victor — the  first  Scotch-bred  calf  dropped 
at  the  farm — was  put  through  the  initial  sale, 
and  the  scramble  for  her  did  not  cease  until  "Uncle 
Sammy"  Steinmetz,  a  thrifty  Missouri  breeder,  nod- 
ded his  head  for  "another  five"  after  the  $1,000 
corner  had  been  turned.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  this  was  in  the  days  when  nothing  save  Bates- 
bred  cattle  were  supposed  to  be  worth  four  figures. 
The  sale,  therefore,  of  this  choice  heifer  at  such  a 
figure  marked  the  virtual  beginning  of  a  demand 
for  Aberdeenshire  blood  that  has  not  yet  run  its 
course. 

The  readers  of  these  notes  will  not  be  taxed 
with  a  presentation  of  details  as  to  the  assembling 
of  the  great  herd  to  be  seen  in  the  Linwood  pastures 
from,  say,  1883  to  1890.  Expense  \^as  not  spared 
in  the  purchase  of  the  best  material  with  which 
Amos  Gruickshank  could  be  induced  to  part.  The 
choice  of  the  American  imports  from  Sittyton  were  re- 
served for  Linwood's  option.  The  genius  of  the  great 
Scotchman  himself  was  invoked  in  the  selection  of 
young  bulls  and  heifers  likely  to  advance  the  cause 
of  the  Gruickshank  stamp  in  the  United  States. 
William  Duthie  alone,  Mr.  Gruickshank's  closest 
adviser  and  contemporary  in  his  declining  years,  had 
the  pick  of  a  bull  ahead  of  Linwood.     Lot  after  lot 


THE  SUNNY  SLOPES  OF  LINWOOD         193 


of  broad-ribbed,  furry-haired,  compactly-fashioned, 
wonderfully -matured  yearlings  and  two-year-olds 
came  out  from  Aberdeen  to  Kansas.  I  remember 
well  one  shipment  that  chanced  to  arrive  upon  the 
occasion  of  one  of  my  frequent  visits  in  the  early 
eighties.  All  hands,  including  Francis  Thompson 
and  his  brother  "Will" — Scotch  boys  sent  out  by 
Mr.  DuTHiE  to  help  develop  the  North  Country  pil- 
grims in  the  sunny  west — were  at  the  station  to 
help  unload  and  get  the  precious  freight  safely 
home.  Pressed  into  service  myself,  the  Colonel 
asked  me  which  one  of  the  lot  I  preferred  to  lead. 
My' fancy  fell  upon  a  particularly  sweet  roan  heifer, 
which  I  was  informed  was  Lavender  34th.  I  was 
told  that  she  was  of  Amos  Cruickshank's  own 
choosing,  and  I  held  her  halter  in  a  memorable 
parade  that  began  at  Linwood  siding,  and  ended  in 
the  blue-grass  enclosure  that  lay  between  Linwood 
house  and  the  Baron  Victor  paddock.  This  heifer 
was  just  such  a  type  as  Bapton  Pearl,  afterwards 
renowned  throughout  American  cattle-breeding 
circles  as  the  mother  of  Whitehall  Sultan;  and 
she  lived  to  produce  a  number  of  very  valuable 
calves. 

A  rare  good  cow  of  Campbell's  Kinellar  Golden 
Drop  sort,  carrying  Bates  crosses,  had  been  added 


194  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


to  the  herd.  She  had  the  grand  air,  carriage  and 
finish  of  the  old-time  Duchesses,  and  the  flesh  that 
was  such  a  cardinal  point  with  Mr.  Gruickshank 
and  his  Aberdeenshire  neighbors,  and  by  crossing 
her  with  Baron  Victor,  possibly  the  best  individual 
cattle  ever  seen  at  Linwood  were  obtained.  Then 
came  Lavender  S6th,  noblest  of  all  the  Gruickshank 
cows  of  her  day  on  this  side  the  Atlantic,  and 
Princess  Alice — marvel  of  thickness,  finish  and  milk 
— a  paragon  of  double-deckers.  And  as  the  seasons 
came  and  passed,  under  the  masterful  guidance  of 
the  owner  Linwood  came  to  be  the  home  of  the 
best  herd  of  Shorthorns  on  the  American  continent 
— the  Mecca  towards  which  the  most  progressive 
breeders  directed  their  steps  in  quest  of  bulls  to 
head  their  herds.  The  tide  was  definitely  turned  to 
the  Aberdeenshire  blood.  The  proprietor  was  hailed 
as  the  regenerator  of  a  breed.  His  services  as 
judge  were  in  request  at  all  the  leading  shows.  In 
the  councils  of  the  American  Shorthorn  Breeders' 
Association  his  judgment  was  all  but  supreme. 
Younger  breeders  found  in  him  an  honest,  trusted 
adviser,  and  many  dated  the  beginnings  of  their 
success  from  days  spent  in  his  pastures.  Eloquent 
and  convincing  always,  his  addresses  and  his  inti- 
mate   conversations  were    an    absolute    inspiration. 


THE  SUNNY  SLOPES  OF  LINWOOD         196 


and  he  had  no  warmer  friends  and  admirers  than 
in  the  ranks  of  his  contemporaries  of  the  Hereford 
and  Aberdeen-Angus  camps. 

Throughout  this,  beyond  question  the  happiest 
period  of  his  life,  the  betterment  of  the  cattle 
stocks  of  the  United  States  had  his  entire  attention. 
All  the  wealth  of  his  great  intellectual  gifts  were 
showered  upon  the  problems  connected  with  the 
improvement  of  our  western  herds.  By  day  and  by 
night  he  ministered  personally  to  his  favorites. 
Like  Thomas  Bates,  he  knew  and  habitually  fondled 
all  his  favorites.  The  animals  themselves  under- 
stood his  devotion,  and  courted  his  hand  as  he 
approached.  In  the  midnight  hours  he  would  re- 
spond to  any  unusual  call  from  about  the  cattle 
barns.  The  lantern  would  be  lighted,  and  he  would 
make  the  rounds  to  ascertain  the  trouble.  Fit  to 
grace,  as  he  afterwards  did,  the  Senate  chamber  at 
Washington,  once  the  choice  of  several  great  states 
as  nominee  for  the  Vice-Presidency  of  the  Republic, 
this  great,  simple-hearted  man  did  not  deem  it  be- 
neath his  dignity  to  do  these  things.  He  had  no 
patience  with  those  of  his  neighbors  who  complained 
of  "bad  luck"  with  cattle.  The  only  luck  he 
recognized  was  that  which  came  as  the  reward  of 
unselfish,  unending  devotion  to  that  which  he  loved. 


196  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Hard  times  overtook  us  all.  He  saw  the  Kan- 
sas farmers  suffering,  despite  their  most  strenuous 
labors.  The  rewards  of  husbandry  were  hazardous 
and  inadequate.  The  usurer  was  abroad  in  the 
land.  Those  who  recognized  the  Colonel  as  a 
worthy  champion  of  the  cause  of  all  who  toiled 
early  and  late  to  create  the  harvest,  went  to  him 
as  children  to  a  kindly  father.  He  was  invited  to 
meet  with  and  talk  to  them.  He  could  not  refuse; 
and  here  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  Linwood 
Farm  and  all  its  bovine  wonders. 

In  the  summer  of  1892  we  went  together  to 
Great  Britain,  landing  at  Liverpool.  Our  very  first 
day  in  rural  England  drew  from  him  after  a  consid- 
erable silence  the  simple  comment,  "This  makes 
me  sick!"  I  knew  what  he  had  worked  out.  The 
settled,  all-pervading  air  of  comfort,  the  matchless 
greenery  of  the  well-kept  fields,  the  fine  old  homes, 
the  ivy -covered  walls,  the  beautiful  roads,  the 
hawthorn  hedges:  the  inheritances  of  the  centuries — 
everything  that  appealed  strongest  to  his  senses 
and  temperament  here  unfolded  in  an  apparently 
endless  panorama,  and  these  people  occupying  this 
Garden  of  Eden  had  been  born  into  it  all!  Here 
was  a  land  where  somebody  else  had  done  something. 
The  best  years  of  his  own  life  had  been  spent  in 
helping  subdue  a  virgin  wilderness. 


THE  SUNNY  SLOPES  OF  LINWOOD         197 


We  landed  at  New  York  some  weeks  later,  and 
a  tslegram  that  awaited  him  at  the  old  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel  robbed  him  then  and  there  of  a  peace  of 
mind  which  I  am  absolutely  certain  he  never  after- 
wards quite  regained,  even  up  to  the  final  hour. 
This  message  notified  him  that  at  a  political  con- 
vention that  had  been  held  at  Wichita,  while  we 
were  upon  the  Atlantic,  he  had  been  unanimously 
nominated  amidst  great  enthusiasm  for  congress- 
man-at-large,  under  an  apportionment  at  that  time 
effective,  for  the  state  of  Kansas. 

"Why,"  said  he,  "did  this  have  to  come  to  me 
just  as  I  was  returning  home  from  this  splendid 
trip,  my  mind  fairly  filled  with  new  ideas,  hopes 
and  plans  for  the  future  of  my  home,  my  farm,  my 
herd?"  This  was  the  natural  protest  of  a  man 
who  had  never  sought  public  office  and  wished  only 
to  live  out  his  simple  life  among  "green  fields  and 
running  brooks."  I  verily  believe  he  had  at  that 
hour  a  premonition  that  this  really  meant  farewell 
to  all  he  valued  most  on  earth.  All  the  way  to 
Chicago  he  could  not  shake  off"  the  pall  that  seemed 
to  fall  upon  his  spirits.  A  good  soldier  always, 
ever  ready  to  respond  to  what  he  felt  might  be  the 
call  of  duty,  he  buckled  on  his  armor  and  made 
the  fight.  People  may  have  differed  with  him  in 
his   views   upon   various   questions   vitally  aff'ecting 


198  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


the  farming  community,  but  no  man  ever  questioned 
the  honesty  of  his  purposes.  Ten  years  of  turmoil 
supervened.  Linwood  never  knew  him  more.  Gin- 
cinnatus  had  been  called  from  the  plow  to  fight  the 
battles  of  his  countrymen,  and  he  was  mortally 
wounded  in  their  service. 

The  election  and  re-election  to  the  House  of 
Representatives;  his  powerful  influence  upon  im- 
portant legislation;  the  inevitable  neglect  of  lands 
and  cattle;  the  death  of  the  mother  of  his  children; 
the  grim  struggle  politically  and  financially;  the 
election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States;  con- 
tinuous business  depression  requiring  the  sale  of 
his  Shorthorns  and  the  farm  at  bottom  prices — all 
these  followed  in  fast  succession,  and  at  last  the 
inevitable  turn  of  the  wheel  that  left  him  once  more 
in  private  life. 

Too  honest  to  accumulate  money  in  politics,  too 
proud  to  ask  for  help  in  the  hour  of  adversity,  too 
brave  ever  to  show  the  white  feather,  he  came 
back  from  Washington  to  the  west  at  my  solicita- 
tion— broken  in  purse  and  spirit — to  begin  anew 
his  old-time  relationship  with  the  stockmen  of  the 
nation;  so  that  we  found  him  in  his  declining  years 
on  the  rostrum,  or  judging  and  assisting  in  the 
management    of    shows,    prominent    in    state    and 


THE    SUNNY    SLOPES    OF    LINWOOD  199 


national  conventions  wherever  his  great  experience 
and  his  acknowledged  talents  could  be  invoked  for 
the  uplift  of  those  who  live  upon  the  land.  It  is 
fitting  that  his  last  public  service  should  have  been 
as  Managing  Director  of  the  International  Live 
Stock  Exposition,  and  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate 
that  his  last  public  address  should  have  been  to 
the  Shorthorn  breeders  of  America,  assembled  in 
annual  meeting  at  the  old  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  on 
the  night  of  Dec.  1,  1909. 

Senator  Harris  was,  in  my  judgment,  the  ablest 
man  who  has  been  identified  with  cattle-breeding 
in  the  United  States  since  my  acquaintance  with 
that  industry  began,  and  had  he  not  been  called 
from  the  farm  to  the  forum,  would  have  attained 
a  reputation  as  a  constructive  breeder  second  to 
none  of  those  who  have  written  their  names  highest 
in  the  Hall  of  Agricultural  Fame.  Broad-minded, 
liberal  and  just,  he  was  planning  a  blending  of  the 
best  Herd  Book  bloods  in  such  fashion  as  could 
scarcely  fail  in  his  hands  to  set  a  new  milestone 
in  Shorthorn  history.  He  did  enough  from  1882 
to  1892  to  demonstrate  his  power,  and  those  who 
aspire  to  great  deeds  in  the  realm  of  animal  hus- 
bandry will  find  in  his  life  and  teachings  the  sound- 
est of  all  foundations  to  build  upon. 


200  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Truth,  integrity,  sincerity,  courage,  originality 
and  capacity,  and  an  abiding  love  of  nature  and 
his  fellowmen!  All  these  were  his,  and  during 
those  last  pathetic  years,  when  he  was  a  constant 
frequenter  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club,  he 
endeared  himself  by  a  thousand  characteristic  words 
and  deeds  to  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 

The  corn  is  ripening  as  we  write,  in  the  autumn 
sunshine  in  the  land  he  understood  so  well.  Soon 
the  drifting  snows  will  follow.  The  endless  pano- 
ramas of  the  seasons  will  continue  in  their  courses; 
the  miracles  of  life  and  death  will  still  be  wrought 
in  the  future  as  in  the  past;  men  will  come  and 
reputations  go;  but  here  was  a  man  we  cannot  afford 
to  forget.  Speed  the  day  when  a  really  satisfying 
portrait  finds  place  in  the  most  sacred  niche  to 
which  it  can  be  assigned  by  loving  hearts  and 
willing  hands. 


XXIII 

AFTERMATH 

Amos  Gruickshank  was  a  bachelor  and  a  Quaker 
— a  man  little  given  to  speech  at  any  time.  His 
brother  Anthony  had  two  sons,  John  W.  and  Edward, 
who  for  some  years  maintained  a  good  herd  at 
Lethenty,  Inverurie,  in  which  Booth  blood  was 
extensively  used.  John  Dryden  of  Canada  and 
Edward  were  on  rather  close  terms  of  friendship, 
and  many  good  Shorthorns  of  mixed  Sittyton  and 
Warlaby  extraction  came  over  to  the  Dryden  farm 
from  Lethenty.  The  latter  herd  was  closed  out, 
however,  many  years  ago.  After  Anthony's  death 
Amos  carried  on  the  great  herd  at  Sittyton  until 
1889,  when,  bending  under  the  weight  of  years,  the 
old  veteran  let  it  be  known  that  he  would  retire. 
There  was  talk  for  a  time  that  the  entire  herd 
would  be  taken  over  by  a  syndicate  of  Americans. 
Davidson,  Dryden,  Harris,  Potts,  Kissinger,  Wil- 
liam Miller  and  others  conferred  in  reference  to 
this;  but  before  action  looking  towards  definite  steps 
could  be  had  a  deal  was  closed  by  Robert  Bruce 
with  Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons  of  Liverpool,  which 
contemplated  a  transfer  of  the  entire  world-renowned 
collection  to  Argentina.  Fortunately,  however,  two 
men  who  were  destined  to  preserve  and  carry  for- 

201 


202  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


ward  admirably  the  excellence  of  the  parent  stock, 
William  Duthie  of  Gollynie,  Aberdeenshire,  and  J. 
Deane  Willis  of  Bapton  Manor,  Wiltshire,  England, 
came  to  the  rescue  and  saved  the  most  of  the 
more  valuable  material  for  the  northern  hemisphere. 
It  was  not  until  several  years  after  this  had 
taken  place  that  I  was  able  to  indulge  a  long-cher- 
ished ambition  to  personally  meet  and  talk  with  Mr. 
Gruickshank.  Mr.  Duthie  accompanied  Senator 
Harris  and  myself  to  Sittyton,  and  there  we  met 
not  only  the  master  of  the  house  but  his  nephew, 
John  W.,  above  mentioned,  the  latter  a  man  of  high 
intelligence  and  refinement.  The  old  man  sat  in 
the  chimney  corner,  wrapped  in  a  warm  gray  woolen 
robe  with  a  red  skullcap  upon  his  head,  and  although 
he  gave  us  hearty  welcome  he  permitted  neighbor 
Duthie  to  do  most  of  the  talking.  Now  those  who 
knew  both  men  will  readily  understand  this  situation, 
I  am  sure.  Gollynie  is  ever  ready  with  his  words — 
and  there  is  commonly  both  wit  and  wisdom  in 
them.  Sittyton  was  always  chary  of  them.  From 
the  two  one  good  average  conversationalist  could 
have  been  readily  made.  However,  I  managed  at 
last  to  put  a  few  pointed  questions  to  the  reticent 
old  man,  to  which  monosyllabic  answers  only  for  the 
most  part  were  returned.     In  fact,  I  was  reminded 


AFTERMATH  205 


of  a  similar  effort  I  had  made  some  years  previous 
to  draw  out  another  octogenerian  cattleman  who 
was  also  more  given  to  making  history  than  talking 
about  it.  I  allude  to  "Uncle"  Abram  Renick  of 
Kentucky.  The  first,  last  and  only  time  I  ever  saw 
him  was  at  one  of  the  Vanmeter-Hamilton  sales  of 
1882  or  1883.  He  was  then  quite  feeble  and  when 
I  asked,  "Mr.  Renick,  did  the  4th  Duke  of  Geneva, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  really  do  your  old  Roses  of 
Sharon  any  good?"  he  simply  said,  after  thinking  it 
over  for  a  moment,  "I  don't  know  that  he  did,  but 
he  helped  to  sell  them."  That  was  all  I  could  get; 
but  there  was  a  deep  significance,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  those  few  words.  And  so  with  Mr.  Gruick- 
SHANK.  When  I  asked  if  he  considered  that  his 
herd  in  its  later  years  had  stood  in  need  of  an 
outcross — some  reinvigoration  through  fresh  blood 
elements — he  merely  shook  his  "frosty  pow"  and 
said,  "It  may  be  so,  but  I  was  too  old  to  do  it." 
By  inference  he  recognized  the  fact  that  some  loss 
of  size  and  substance  had  set  in,  but  the  great  and 
always  difficult  task  of  seeking  to  revivify  a  strongly 
inbred  type  must,  in  his  case,  be  left  to  younger  men. 
How  DuTHiE  and  Willis — the  one  working  in  the 
north  of  Scotland  and  the  latter  in  the  south  of 
England — set  about  this  undertaking,  and  how  clev- 


204  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


erly  they  manipulated  the  heritage  they  had  from 
Amos  Gruickshank,  forms  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
chapters  in  modern  live-stock  history. 

William  Duthie  and  Deane  Willis  are  still  living. 
Both  deserve  all  the  lavish  praise  that  has  been 
bestowed  upon  them.  Willis  has  a  most  delightful 
home  in  a  land  where  winter  as  we  know  it  never 
comes,  where  the  grass  is  always  green,  and  where 
there  is  a  garden  I  shall  not  soon  forget.  The  old 
stone  house  at  Bapton  has  pictures  and  trophies 
galore  that  tell  the  story  of  accomplishments  in  the 
modern  cattle-breeding  world  that  sustain  the  best 
traditions  of  ancient  York  and  Durham.  He  came 
out  to  the  States  several  years  ago  to  judge,  and 
is  one  of  the  many  distinguished  guests  who  have 
been  entertained  at  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club. 
While  in  America  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
some  of  the  wonderful  effects  of  the  widespread 
use  of  a  great  bull  he  gave  to  us — Whitehall  Sultan. 

Mr.  Duthie  was  out  judging  at  Toronto  some 
seasons  since,  but  his  time  was  so  limited  that  he 
did  not  get  into  the  west.  So,  as  the  mountain 
could  not  come  to  Mahomet,  some  Saddle  and  Sir- 
LOiNERS  journeyed  over  the  border  to  greet  him. 
Mr.  Duthie  is  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable 
man   I   have  ever  known.     In  his  native  district  he 


AFTERMATH  205 


is  father-confessor  to  the  whole  countryside:  banker, 
trustee,  guardian,  farmer,  merchant,  pillar  of  the 
"kirk,"  chairman  of  half  the  Boards  in  Aberdeen- 
shire, factor  for  Lord  Aberdeen  of  Haddo  House, 
and  prince  imperial  of  latter-day  Shorthorn  cattle- 
breeders  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  realm.  A  very  dynamo 
for  energy,  outpointing  any  Yankee  in  native  shrewd- 
ness, learned  in  the  lore  of  northern  cattle-breeding 
beyond  all  his  contemporaries,  successful  as  a  pro- 
ducer of  champions,  a  salesman  of  high-bred  animals, 
ranking  with  our  own  Mark  Dunham  of  international 
fame  in  draft-horse  breeding  circles,  patronized  by 
royalty  and  the  leaders  of  the  Shorthorn  trade  in 
both  North  and  South  America — he  has  builded  for 
himself  a  record  of  success  that  insures  his  fame  for 
all  time  to  come  in  the  annals  of  British  agriculture. 
Many  a  happy  hour  I  have  spent  with  this  virile, 
keen-minded  successor  to  Amos  Cruickshank,  driving 
about  northern  Aberdeenshire.  His  two  main  breed- 
ing farms  are  Collynie  and  Tillycairn.  Here  and 
upon  the  neighboring  farm  of  Uppermill — so  long 
occupied  by  the  Messrs.  Marr — Shorthorns  have 
been  bred  that  have  made  showyard  and  salering 
records  that  shall  be  memorable  for  generations  yet 
to  come.  To  this  most  companionable  genius  I  have 
to  confess  my  obligations  for  many  valuable  histor- 


206  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


ical  facts  utilized  in  my  work  in  the  past  twenty 
years;  but  the  thought  of  how  much  Duthie  really 
knows  that  has  never  yet  been  got  from  him  in  the 
interest  of  the  cattle-breeding  world  makes  me  regret 
that  I  have  not  accepted  a  repeated  invitation, 
cordially  pressed,  to  occupy  for  a  season  the  com- 
fortable farmhouse  at  Gollynie,  where  we  could  have 
time  to  get  his  recollections  of  Aberdeenshire  history 
covering  a  span  of  half  a  century.  Some  day  such 
a  dream  might  come  true;  but  he  has  already  passed 
three  score  and  ten,  and  it's  a  far  cry  these  awful 
days  from  Chicago  to  those  bonnie  Aberdonian  banks 
and  braes. 

Mr.  Duthie  is  a  man  of  wonderful  conversational 
powers,  possessing  an  inexhaustible  store  of  Scot- 
ticisms, and  once  kept  everybody  entertained  so 
long  over  the  afternoon  tea  at  the  late  Mrs.  Muir- 
head's — a  sister  of  Mr.  John  Glay  and  then  wife  of 
Lord  Aberdeen's  estate  manager — that  we  almost 
missed  seeing  the  Shorthorns  at  Tillycairn  entirely, 
although  I  had  journeyed  across  the  Atlantic  partly 
for  that  particular  purpose.  In  view  of  the  effective 
grouping  of  the  best  things  there  to  be  seen,  that 
awaited  our  final  arrival  late  that  afternoon,  I  have 
always  had  a  sneaking  notion  that  there  was  ''method 
in  his  madness"  in  beguiling  us  so  long  with  his 
stories  over  Mrs.  Muirhead's  tea. 


AFTERMATH  207 


One  of  these  only  I  happen  to  remember.  U  ran 
something  like  this: 

"Over  near  Tarves  a  good,  honest,  hard-working 
chap  was  about  to  be  married.  He  invited  all  his 
friends  and  neighbors  to  the  festivities,  and  the 
evening  was  passing  off  in  jolly  fashion.  Sandy 
finally  thought  it  was  about  time  he  made  some 
public  acknowledgment  to  the  parson  who  had 
honored  the  company  by  his  presence,  and  in  fact 
had  tied  the  marriage  knot,  so  he  raised  his  glass 
to  propose  a  toast.  He  had  premeditated  this,  of 
course,  and  in  reality  had  prepared  for  himself  a 
very  neat  little  speech,  the  main  point  in  which 
was  to  be  the  fact  that  they  all  knew  and  appre- 
ciated the  good  man  so  thoroughly  that  nothing  the 
speaker  could  say  would  add  to  their  repect  for  him, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc.;  but  in  the  excitement  of  the  moment 
he  lost  his  bearings  a  bit,  winding  up,  somewhat  to 
the  dismay  of  his  guests,  with:  *Gude  friends,  ye  a' 
ken  the  meenister  so  verra  weel,  he  has  lived  among 
us  a'  sae  lang,  that  the  least  said  aboot  him  the 
better.' " 

One  night  during  the  week  that  Mr.  Duthie  was 
judging  at  Toronto  the  management  tendered  their 
guest  from  across  the  seas  a  grand  banquet,  attended 
by  many  of  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  Dominion. 
It  was  a  large  affair,  and  nearly  everybody  in  due 
course  was  called  upon  to  make  a  speech.  Some- 
where around  midnight  the  chairman  pounced  upon 


208  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


me,  and  I  had  a  grain  of  satisfaction,  in  sparring  for 
an  opening,  in  retailing  that  same  little  yarn,  using 
DuTHiE,  however,  as  the  hero  of  Sandy's  wedding 
party  instead  of  the  minister.  The  company  was  at 
that  hour  in  a  mood  to  relish  the  idea  of  "the  least 
said  about  Mr.  Duthie  the  better,"  and  in  the  fun 
that  followed  I  absolved  the  gentleman  from  the 
sin  of  having  delayed  my  game  once  upon  a  time 
v/hen  wanting  to  view  Shorthorns  rather  than  listen 
to  his  good  North  Country  jokes. 


XXIV 
A  KNIGHT  OF  THE  GOLDEN  DAYS 

On  the  20th  of  February,  1840,  there  was  born 
not  far  from  the  massive  walls  of  Belvoir  Castle — 
one  of  the  seats  of  the  ducal  house  of  Rutland  in 
Leicestershire,  England — one  who  was  destined  to 
play  an  important  role  in  the  progress  of  some  of 
the  great  events  already  detailed.  He  was  one  of 
a  family  of  fourteen,  the  eldest  of  eight  sons.  His 
surname  was  Gibson  and  his  parents  called  him 
Richard.  Throughout  a  long  and  eventful  life  his 
intimates  knew  him  as  "Dick."  He  became  one  of 
the  pillars  of  the  International  Show,  and  one  of 
the  best  loved  members  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
Club.  His  portrait  is  not  as  satisfactory  as  might  be 
wished,  but  this  little  book  would  be  wholly  incom- 
plete without  some  reference  to  his  life  and  work. 

The  Gibsons  removed  from  Leicestershire  into 
Derbyshire  when  Richard  was  but  six  years  old. 
He  received  his  education  in  the  grammar  schools 
of  Derby  and  Lincoln,  and  spent  two  years  in  the 
office  of  a  grain  merchant  in  the  city  last  named, 
after  which  he  returned  to  his  father  at  Swarkeston, 
and  spent  four  years  familiarizing  himself  with  the 
farming  and  stock-breeding  operations  as  conducted 
upon  a  holding  of  some  600  acres,  which  was  so  well 

209 


210  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


managed  as  to  win  several  prizes  for  exceptional 
results  in  cultivation.  At  the  age  of  21,  accompanied 
by  his  brother  John,  he  took  passage  by  the  steam- 
ship "Jura"  from  Liverpool  for  Quebec,  determined  to 
try  his  fortune  in  the  new  world.  He  had  a  letter 
of  introduction  to  a  Mr.  Gox  of  Barrie,  Ont.  On  the 
occasion  of  his  visit  to  present  his  credentials  at 
this  farm  the  young  Englishman  was  somewhat 
startled  to  see  wild  deer  in  the  "bush"  as  he  gazed 
from  the  bedroom  window.  This  was  his  first  intro- 
duction to  the  ultimate  land  of  his  adoption.  Pro- 
ceeding from  Barry  to  Hamilton  he  was  advised  to 
go  to  Spring  Grove  Farm  (near  Ilderton,  some  13 
miles  north  of  London,  Ont.),  then  owned  by  the  late 
George  Robson.  Here  Richard  remained  until  he 
had  thoroughly  learned  Canadian  agriculture,  after 
which  he  accepted  an  offer  to  go  to  Long  Island 
and  take  charge  of  an  estate  of  1 ,500  acres  belong- 
ing to  Mr.  Delamater,  a  New  York  shipbuilder.  After 
the  lapse  of  two  years  in  this  service  his  activities 
were  transferred  to  the  management  of  a  1,400-acre 
farm  near  Utica,  N.  Y.,  owned  by  Messrs.  Walcott 
&  Campbell,  proprietors  of  the  New  York  Sheeting 
Mills,  an  extensive  cotton  manufacturing  plant. 

There  was  no  live  stock  of  consequence  upon  the 
place    when    Gibson   took   hold   of  it.     The  owners 


A    KNIGHT  OF  THE   GOLDEN    DAYS  211 


were  ready  enough  to  receive  suggestions  as  to 
investments  in  that  line,  but  possessed  little  prac- 
tical knowledge  of  the  business.  Mr.  Campbell,  a 
"canny"  Scot,  suggested  Ayrshires,  and  a  herd  of  that 
time-honored  Scottish  dairy  sort  was  duly  founded. 
With  these,  however,  Gibson  was  not  satisfied.  From 
his  early  youth  he  had  been  a  lover  of  the  Shorthorn, 
and  he  still  had  visions  of  the  "red,  white  and  roan" 
in  all  the  glory  of  their  furry  coats,  broad  ribs,  deep 
chests  and  capacious  udders,  as  seen  in  the  show- 
yards  and  pastures  of  his  native  land.  As  a  mere  boy 
he  had  listened  with  rapt  attention  to  the  stories  of 
Lancaster  and  Comet  as  told  in  the  quaint  language 
and  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  illiterate  but  observ- 
ant herdsmen.  The  Shorthorn  was  at  this  time  the 
pampered  favorite  of  the  British  nobility,  as  well  as 
the  mainstay  of  the  English  tenantry.  Prominent 
New  Yorkers  like  Col.  Morris,  Samuel  Thorne  and 
J.  O.  Sheldon  had  already  made  importations  of  the 
popular  Duchess  and  Oxford  blood.  Tom  Booth  was 
setting  the  English  showyards  wild  with  the  mar- 
velous creations  of  Warlaby.  The  way  was  being 
paved  for  the  most  stupendous  speculation  in  blooded 
cattle  the  world  had  ever  known. 

Mr.  Campbell's  objections  were  finally  overcome 
and  a  few  Shorthorns,  which  he  always  referred  to 


212  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


as  "Gibson's  things,"  were  allowed  upon  the  place. 
Richard  did  not  mean  to  be  content,  however,  with 
anything  short  of  "tops,"  and  after  explaining  at 
length  the  highly  interesting  situation  then  existing 
abroad  as  between  the  Booth  and  Bates  tribes,  and 
after  having  pointed  out  that  practically  no  speci- 
mens of  the  former  were  then  in  the  United  States, 
he  was  commissioned  to  proceed  to  England  and 
select  ten  head  for  importation. 

Tom  Booth  was  then  at  the  very  climax  of  his 
reputation  as  a  breeder  of  champion  cattle.  The 
famous  bull  Commander  in  Chief  and  the  extraor- 
dinary cow  Lady  Fragrant — regarded  by  the  critics 
of  that  day  as  the  most  marvelous  specimen  of  the 
breed  produced  up  to  that  date — had  just  been  made 
British  champions.  It  had  never  been  the  practice 
at  Warlaby,  however,  to  part  with  females,  and  it 
was  only  with  the  understanding  that  those  put  in 
oifer  to  Mr.  Gibson  were  to  be  taken  out  of  the 
country  that  any  price  could  be  had.  Mr.  Cochrane 
had  just  paid  the  unprecedented  figure  of  $5,000 
for  a  Duchess  heifer  from  Col.  Gunter,  and  as  the 
rivalry  between  the  two  great  Shorthorn  houses 
was  then  at  its  very  height  Mr.  Booth  would  take 
no  less  than  the  same  price  for  the  fine  show 
heifer  Bride  of  the  Vale,  that  was  particularly  desired 


A    KNIGHT  OF  THE    GOLDEN    DAYS  213 


by  the  American  buyer.  She  was  accompanied  by 
nine  head,  nearly  all  of  Booth  extraction,  and  two 
years  later  another  importation  of  a  like  number 
was  made  for  New  York  Mills. 

Mr.  Sheldon,  who  had  acquired  all  of  the  Thorne- 
dale  Duchesses,  scented  danger  to  his  speculation 
in  Bates  cattle  by  this  invasion  of  the  Booths;  so 
he  resolved  to  make  terms,  offering  to  sell  one-half 
of  the  Geneva  herd.  Gibson  advised  its  purchase, 
but  Mr.  Campbell  replied,  "But  you  don't  know  the 
price!"  The  answer  was,  ''Never  mind  the  price; 
buy."  The  deal  was  closed,  and  the  division  made; 
the  Duchesses  cost  an  average  of  $5,500  each, 
and  the  Oxfords  $2,800  each.  A  year  later  the 
entire  Sheldon  herd  was  taken  over  at  an  agreed 
price  of  $100,000  for  about  50  head.  The  Booths 
were  disposed  of  and  some  of  them  found  their 
way  back  to  England. 

There  were  then  no  Duchesses  living  on  either 
side  of  the  Atlantic  descended  direct  from  Mr.  Bates' 
herd  without  admixture  of  blood  from  other  sources, 
excepting  those  owned  at  New  York  Mills,  so  that 
when,  in  1873,  the  time  was  deemed  right  for  such 
an  event  the  entire  herd  was  advertised  for  sale  at 
public  auction.  Shorthorn  breeding  at  that  date  was 
engaging  the  enthusiastic  attention  of  large  numbers 


214  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


of  wealthy  and  enterprising  men  in  both  Britain  and 
Canada,  and  the  announcement  of  this  dispersion 
was  the  signal  for  the  beginning  of  negotiations  on 
both  sides  of  the  water  looking  toward  an  inter- 
national contest  for  the  possession  of  this  blood  so 
highly  prized.  The  golden  guineas  of  the  British 
were  pitted  against  the  "almighty  dollar"  of  the 
Americans,  on  the  tenth  day  of  September,  1873,  in 
a  contest  for  the  possession  of  these  cattle,  which 
resulted,  as  has  already  been  related,  in  the  as- 
tounding total  of  $381,990,  an  average  of  $3,504, 
for  the  109  head,  with  a  top  price  of  $40,600,  bid 
by  one  of  the  English  commissioners  for  the  8th 
Duchess  of  Geneva! 

The  sensational  success  of  this  venture  brought 
Mr.  Gibson  into  a  prominence  on  both  s;ides  of  the 
water  that  rendered  him  thenceforth  a  conspicuous 
figure  in  stock-breeding  circles  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  enabled  him  to  engage  in  various  important 
enterprises  of  his  own.  He  embarked  for  a  time 
in  the  importation  and  exportation  of  Shorthorns, 
selling  33  head  at  Chicago  in  April,  1882,  for 
$24,300,  and  20  head  a  year  later  at  the  same 
place  for  $20,330.  On  removing  his  family  from 
the  United  States  he  had  leased  a  farm  at  Ilderton, 
Ont.,  and  in  1883  purchased  Belvoir,  on  the  River 


A   KNIGHT  OF  THE   GOLDEN   DAYS  215 


Thames,  near  the  village  of  Delaware,  and  built  it 
up  with  the  aid  of  sheep,  cattle  and  judicious  crop- 
ping into  one  of  the  prize  farms  of  the  Dominion. 
The  star  of  the  BATES-bred  Shorthorns,  of  which 
Mr.  Gibson  was  so  fond,  had  begun  to  wane  even 
at  the  time  of  his  Chicago  sales.  The  invasion  of  the 
west  by  the  heavy-fleshed  Herefords  and  Aberdeen- 
Angus  had  already  begun  to  turn  the  Shorthorn 
tide  into  other  channels.  It  was  for  many  years  a 
source  of  much  concern  to  this  valiant  defender  of 
the  Kirklevington  blood  that  the  American  public 
insisted  upon  drifting  away  from  what  he  regarded 
as  the  true  Shorthorn  faith  to  wander  far  afield 
after  strange  gods.  He  did  not  believe  in  the 
Aberdeenshire  type  of  Shorthorns,  and  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  denounce  them  roundly  as  destined  to  ruin 
the  breed  in  this  country.  That  he  sincerely  be- 
lieved this  to  be  true  no  one  could  question.  He 
was  often  called  as  a  judge  at  leading  shows  in 
Canada  and  the  States,  and  if  one  of  the  lordly, 
high-headed,  broad-loined,  level-quartered  sort,  which 
he  regarded  as  the  true  Shorthorn  type,  came 
before  him  in  competition  with  one  of  the  low- 
headed,  heavy -bodied,  shorter -legged  Cruickshank 
stamp,  there  was  rarely  a  doubt  among  the  by- 
standers as  to  where  Gibson  would  hang  the  ribbon. 


216  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


In  this  connection  a   personal   incident   may  not  be 
amiss. 

The  writer  hereof  in  the  early  eighties  endeavored 
to  introduce  into  American  agricultural  journalism 
the  English  system  of  critical  comment  upon  the 
work  of  the  judges  at  the  great  national  competi- 
tions. This  was  an  untried  field  in  this  country, 
and  an  early  abandonment  was  freely  predicted. 
In  the  face  of  the  bitter  rivalry,  then  becoming 
acute,  as  between  the  old  and  the  new  showyard 
Shorthorn  types,  the  effort  was  peculiarly  difficult 
and  indeed  at  times  impossible  of  successful  accom- 
plishment. Upon  one  notable  occasion  a  decision  of 
Mr.  Gibson's  came  in  for  sharp  criticism,  to  which 
he  replied  through  the  press  with  vigor  and  the 
free  use  of  sarcasm.  We  had  up  to  that  time  been 
the  best  of  friends,  but  this  incident  seemed  to 
foreshadow  an  estrangement.  In  the  meantime, 
however,  work  had  been  commenced  on  the  **  His- 
tory of  Shorthorn  Cattle,"  brought  out  in  the  spring 
of  1900,  and  in  the  course  of  the  preparation  of 
the  manuscript  occasion  arose  for  consulting  Mr. 
Gibson  in  reference  to  certain  facts  resting  spe- 
cially within  his  personal  knowledge;  so,  swallowing 
a  bit  of  pride  and  ignoring  the  friction  that  had 
arisen,  a   letter   of   inquiry   was   duly   posted.     For 


A    KNIGHT  OF  THE   GOLDEN    DAYS  217 


some  time  there  was  no  response,  but  finally  a 
well-filled,  large  envelope  put  in  its  appearance. 
The  letter,  which  was  from  Mr.  Gibson,  began,  con- 
trary to  previous  practice,  in  a  very  formal  manner 

— "Sir:     Yours  of  received.     I   am   not   sure 

that  I  can  answer  your  question.  I" — but  here  the 
ice  suddenly  melted.  Dropping  abruptly  conven- 
tional forms,  Richard  was  himself  again.  "Oh,  the 
devil,  Alvin!  What's  the  use!  I'll  tell  you  all 
about  it."  Whereupon  he  fell  straightway  into  one 
of  his  delightful  reminiscent  moods  and  related 
one  of  the  most  interesting  Shorthorn  stories 
ever  told.  This  was  in  1899,  and  from  that  time 
until  the  closing  hours  of  his  life  we  were  firm 
friends,  serving  together  for  nearly  ten  years  upon 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  International  Live 
Stock  Exposition,  maintaining  all  the  while  a  cor- 
respondence into  which  he  poured  all  the  wealth 
of  an  astonishing  fund  of  recollection,  as  useful  in 
our  editorial  work  as  it  was  entertaining.  It  is  unfor- 
tunate that  these  letters  have  not  all  been  preserved. 
They  were  usually  too  personal  in  their  nature  for 
publication;  but  the  one  just  quoted  affords  a  fine 
insight  into  his  generous  character,  carrying  with  it 
the  lesson  that  life  is  too  short  for  friends  to  quarrel 
over  mere  matters  of  individual  judgment. 


218  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Richard  Gibson  had  an  extraordinary  appreciation 
of  the  fascination  of  the  breeder's  art.  He  loved 
all  forms  of  high-bred  animal  life.  Shorthorns  and 
Shropshires  were  probably  the  chief  objects  of  his 
affectionate  study  and  regard;  but  his  keen  delight 
in  all  that  revealed  skillful  manipulation  of  the 
mysterious  forces  of  nature  by  the  guiding  mind  of 
man  extended  throughout  the  entire  range  of  the 
four-footed  and  feathered  creation.  Like  "Jorrocks" 
of  old,  he  was  a  devout  believer  in  the  efficacy  of 
"a  bit  o'  blood,  whether  it  be  in  a  'orse,  a  'ound,  or 
a  woman."  He  could  be  equally  interested  in  a 
Christmas  bullock,  a  **classy"  Clydesdale,  a  Derby 
winner,  a  game-cock,  or  fox  terriers.  There  was 
something  of  kinship  in  his  love  for  country  sports 
and  animal  life  with  such  worthies  as  old  Barclay 
of  Ury.  Fond  of  all  that  appeals  to  those  who  love 
the  open  country,  he  could  see  as  much  beauty  in 
a  hedge-row  or  an  oak  as  some  people  can  find  in 
metropolitan  galleries  of  art.  And  speaking  of  oaks, 
many  years  ago  he  asked  for  and  received  some 
acorns  from  one  of  the  royal  domains  in  England — 
in  fact,  the  product  of  one  of  the  most  venerable 
and  historic  trees  in  the  mother  country.  These  he 
planted  successfully  at  Belvoir,  and  shortly  before 
his  death  donated  some  of  the  seedlings  to  the  city 


A    KNIGHT  OF  THE    GOLDEN    DAYS  219 


of  London,  Ont.,  which  were  planted  in  Victoria 
Park  in  commemoration  of  the  coronation  of  King 
George,  then  impending. 

Mr.  Gibson  served  as  president  of  the  Dominion 
Shorthorn  Association  and  of  the  Canadian  Kennel 
Glub,  besides  holding  numerous  other  offices  in  con- 
nection with  various  organizations  of  stock  breeders 
on  both  sides  the  line.  He  served  as  a  member  of 
the  Agricultural  Commission  appointed  by  the  On- 
tario Government  in  1880.  He  was  survived  by  his 
wife — a  sister  of  Capt.  T.  E.  Robson — and  by  three 
married  daughters  and  by  one  son,  Noel,  a  young 
man  of  the  highest  promise — indeed,  a  sterling  rep- 
resentative of  a  family  that  has  contributed  largely 
to  the  extension  of  popular  interest  in  improved 
farm  stock  on  this  continent.  The  Gibsons  have 
in  fact  written  their  names  indelibly  in  the  litera- 
ture of  improved  stock-breeding  during  the  past  half 
century.  Richard's  name  is  forever  linked  with  New 
York  Mills.  His  brother  Arthur  was  one  of  Eng- 
land's best-esteemed  herd  managers,  and  the  work 
of  William  and  John  on  this  side  the  water  is 
known  to  all  who  follow  the  course  of  the  trade. 

Rich  in  sentiment,  the  mind  of  Richard  Gibson 
was  filled  with  an  inexhaustible  store  of  incidents 
illuminating  the  splendid  story  of  the  achievements 


220  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


of  great  men  in  the  stock-breeding  world.  An  easy 
and  interesting  conversationalist  and  possessed  of  a 
fine  sense  of  humor,  when  surrounded  by  congenial 
companions,  kindred  spirits — such  as  were  wont  to 
congregate  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  in  the  old 
fat-stock  show  days  and  latterly  at  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  Glub — he  was  at  his  best.  Among  those 
who  loved  the  tales  of  the  olden  days  there  exists 
since  his  demise  a  sense  of  loss  that  finds  no  ade- 
quate expression. 


XXV 
THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  INN 

"As  a  tree  planted  by  the  waters  and  that  spread- 
eth  out  her  roots  by  the  river,  and  shall  not  see 
when  the  heat  cometh,  but  her  leaf  shall  be  green; 
and  shall  not  be  careful  in  the  year  of  drouth,  neither 
shall  it  cease  from  yielding  fruit." 

When,  one  night  in  the  month  of  January,  1912, 
the  old  hotel  disappeared  in  a  chariot  of  fire,  an 
opportunity  for  doing  something  monumental  as  well 
as  practical  was  presented,  and  it  was  a  moral  cer- 
tainty in  advance  that  this  would  be  improved  to  the 
utmost.  The  inspirations  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
Club  could  produce  but  one  result.  Essentially 
educational  in  its  conception,  and  wholly  utilitarian 
in  its  character,  the  Inn  stands  today  —  and  let  us 
hope  will  stand  for  generations  yet  to  come  —  a 
splendid  tribute  to  the  land  and  the  era  that  supplied 
the  seed,  the  harvest  of  which  is  the  stupendous  daily 
business  at  the  Yards !  A  modern  fireproof  structure 
provided  with  all  twentieth  century  comforts  within, 
its  exterior  aspects  preserve  and  perpetuate  the 
quaintly  picturesque  and  exquisitely  artistic  lines  of 
the  architecture  of  rural  England  of  the  long  ago — 
the  present  masquerading  in  the  garments  of  a  glo- 
rious Elizabethan  past !     A  bit  of  the  old  world  set 

221 


222  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


down  in  the  very  heart  of  the  new !  A  fascinating 
memento  of  an  age  when  men  had  time  to  think,  and 
cultivate  the  arts  of  friendly  intercourse,  the  Inn 
looks  calmly  down  upon  the  rush  and  roar  of  city 
rails  and  motors,  and  bids  the  breathless  pause  and 
find  perspective. 

A  wall  220  feet  in  length  is  presented  to  the  city 
street,  but  a  generous  passageway  admits  man  and 
beast  and  vehicle  of  whatever  kind  through  a  modi- 
fied type  of  the  old-fashioned  Scottish  wynd  into  a 
quiet  court.  Over  the  main  entrance  is  the  porte- 
cochere  that  graced  the  old  Guild  House  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Hereford.  In  the  southwest  wing  you 
see  the  front  of  a  fine  old  Yorkshire  manor  house 
woven  into  the  long  and  beautiful  facade.  At  still 
another  point  may  be  made  out  the  lines  of  what  was 
once  John  Harvard's  home.  Stop  and  study  it.  You 
have  only  just  left  the  whirl  of  metropolitan  life  out- 
side the  wall,  and  instantly  you  have  come  upon  a 
scene  whose  dominant  note  is  peace  and  real  repose. 
You  feel  yourself  suddenly  halted  in  your  accustomed 
race;  and  if  at  all  responsive  to  the  picture,  you  will 
presently  begin  to  feel  something  in  the  nature  of  a 
benedic/tion.  The  slings  and  arrows  of  today  are 
flying  only  beyond  the  gates. 

Practically  all    of    our  most    widely -distributed 


THE     INSPIRATION    OF    THE    INN  223 


modern  flesh -bearing  breeds  originated  in  England. 
John  Bull  has  ever  had  a  weakness  for  the  toothsome 
viands.  There  is  nothing  much  the  matter  with  his 
stomach  or  his  appetite.  He  has  for  generations 
preferred  life  in  the  open  country  to  a  mere  existence 
in  the  midst  of  crowds.  He  loves  his  horses  and  his 
hounds.  The  horn  of  the  hunter  is  to  him  the  sweet- 
est of  all  sounds  next  to  the  full-throated  music  of 
the  pack.  He  lives  much  among  his  four-footed 
friends.  He  understands  them.  He  learned  long  ago 
how  to  develop  them  to  a  high  state  of  perfection. 
He  keeps  a  good  table.  He  is  a  generous  and  par- 
ticular provider.  His  beef  and  his  chop  must  be  of 
the  sort  that  satisfies.  He  objects  not  at  all  to  the 
liberal  proportion  of  fat  that  ever  lies  alongside  the 
juicy  cut  that  nourishes  the  body  and  makes  glad 
the  heart. 

He  demanded  something  wholesome,  something 
substantial,  something  good  to  eat  and  drink,  not  only 
in  his  home,  but  at  the  hands  of  ''mine  host"  of  the 
village  inn.  His  business  took  him  frequently  to  his 
nearest  market  town,  and  after  the  bargaining  was 
over  for  the  day,  it  was  his  wont  to  join  his  colleagues 
of  the  countryside,  men  of  similar  type  and  tastes, 
at  the  ''King's  Head,"  the  "White  Horse,"  the  "Black 
Bull,"  or  other  local  public  house.     Here,  over  bread 


224  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  cheese  or  chop  or  joint — and  too  often  perhaps 
the  generous  mug  of  "brown  October  ale" — the  grand 
debate  would  start.  It  might  take  wide  range,  but  it 
would  inevitably  turn  to  horses,  dogs  and  bulls  or 
"tups,"  with  many  a  wager  placed  for  subsequent 
adjudication.  Out  of  these  tap-room  sessions  grew 
the  early  shows  where  results  were  measured  and 
experiences  exchanged;  and  as  the  product  of  this  or 
that  procedure  became  of  interest  to  the  whole  com- 
munity, notes  were  made  and  the  foundations  of 
pedigree  registration  at  length  established.  Why  not 
commemorate  such  scenes  and  thus  remind  ourselves 
occasionally  of  the  debt  we  owe  to  those  who  gave 
us  our  good  breeds  and  founded  the  trial  by  jury  in 
the  open  showyard?  Such  was  the  reasoning  of 
Arthur  G.  Leonard,  to  whom  the  west  is  indebted  for 
this  truly  artistic  memorial  structure. 

Facing  as  it  does  the  home  of  the  International, 
connected  as  it  is  by  steps  and  corridors  with  the 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  Glub  itself,  and  serving  daily 
the  patrons  of  the  greatest  live-stock  market  of  the 
world,  the  Stock  Yard  Inn  is  America's  one  enduring 
monument  to  these  grand  old  men  and  the  times  in 
which  they  lived,  placed  in  the  one  spot,  above  all 
others  on  the  continent,  where  such  a  work  should 
stand. 


XXVI 
HISTORY  IN  THE  MAKING 

In  our  tour  of  the  club  rooms  we  now  arrive  in 
Havana — that  is  to  say,  the  smoking  room,  so 
called,  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Glub.  They  are 
all  smoking  rooms,  so  far  as  I  have  ever  observed. 
But,  anyhow,  drop  here  into  an  easy-chair,  and  if 
you  enjoy  the  weed  pull  away  at  your  Perfecto  if 
you  like,  while  we  seek  through  the  floating  cloud- 
wreaths  the  lines  of  certain  extraordinary  scenes. 
The  well-trained  eye  can  see  these  pictures  stand- 
ing out  in  bold  relief  behind  the  canvas  that  carries 
the  features  of  Mark  W.  Dunham.  Note  the  pass- 
ing panorama. 

Under  a  gray  old  castle's  frowning  walls  a  draw- 
bridge falls  across  the  moat.  The  trumpets  sound. 
A  glittering  cavalcade  emerges.  Pennons  gay  and 
guidons  flutter  in  the  breeze.  Steel  and  silver — 
corselet,  hilt  and  morion — glisten  in  the  morning 
sun,  and  noble  chargers,  mostly  white  and  gray, 
prance  proudly,  bearing  out  into  the  medieval  world 
brave  belted  knights  and  their  retainers  faring  forth 
to  meet  what  ere  betides. 

Generations  pass:  in  the  far  distance  the  rhythmic 
beating  of  heavy  hurrying  hoofs!     It  is  a  highway 

225 


226  AT   THE    SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK   YARD    INN 


builded  by  the  kings  of  France.  To  the  sound  of 
the  horn  and  the  sharp  note  of  the  lash,  the  great 
diligence  bearing  the  royal  mails  and  laden  deep 
with  passengers  and  their  gear  comes  into  view.  A 
rush,  a  roar  of  wheels,  and  the  great  freighted  coach 
is  gone. 

Agriculture  calls:  down  the  long  furrows  see  the 
shining  plowshares  deeply  driven.  The  mellow  earth 
awakens,  and  lo,  the  stored  up  riches  of  a  fertile 
field  await  the  seed.  Long  is  the  journey  and  re- 
peated oft.  From  ''early  morn  to  dewy  eve"  the 
living  shuttles  travel,  back  and  forth;  but  weight 
that  wearies  not  is  harnessed. 

And  yet  again,  last  scene  of  all:  a  busy  modern 
city  street.  Huge  vans  and  trucks  are  rumbling 
ever  on  the  granite  blocks.  Big  grays  and  blacks 
march  proudly  to  the  music  of  a  nation's  commerce. 
Power,  patience,  dignity  personified.  Glory  be  to  men 
who  can  produce  such  prodigies! 

Such  is  the  prologue.    Now  for  the  drama  proper. 

First  an  old  brick  farmhouse  underneath  great 
oaks.  The  town  of  Elgin,  111.,  some  five  miles  dis- 
tant. North,  east,  west  and  south  well-managed 
fields  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  A  country  that 
knows  and  never  loses  sight  of  the  value  of  golden 
hoofs  in  husbandry.     Live  stock  has  kept  the  dis- 


HISTORY    IN    THE    MAKING  227 


trict  rich  for  fifty  years,  and  live  stock  will  keep 
it  rich  forever. 

The  time  is  about  1870.  A  gray  stallion  with 
a  long  white  mane  is  seen  approaching.  His  name 
Success — happy  omen  of  what  was  even  then  in 
the  womb  of  fate — is  a  household  word  for  miles 
around.  He  is  given  a  box  in  the  Dunham  stables, 
and  the  foundation  of  the  greatest  triumph  ever 
known  in  draft -horse  breeding  in  the  world  is  laid. 

Presently  we  see  groups  of  big  gay  Percherons 
unloaded  at  the  little  railway  station,  Wayne,  that 
adjoins  the  farm  along  its  northern  boundary.  They 
are  freshly  arrived  from  France.  A  big  new  barn 
goes  up.  Visitors  come.  Then  more  horses,  more 
big  red  barns,  more  visitors.  Then  one  by  one  the 
stallions  are  led  away  to  Wayne,  and  shipped. 
Some  go  east,  some  go  west.  The  best  remain  at 
Oaklawn.  Each  time  we  look  greater  numbers  of 
horses  are  arriving,  larger  throngs  of  buyers,  and  a 
bigger,  ever  bigger  equipment! 

On  the  hill  overlooking  the  best-tilled  fields  in 
Illinois  a  Norman  castle  with  towers  and  battle- 
ments appears.  The  old  brick  house  becomes  an 
office.  Clerks  and  typewriters  work  from  January 
to  December  trying  to  keep  track  of  new  impor- 
tations   from    the    Perche    and    of    Mr.    Dunham's 


228  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK     YARD    INN 


tremendous  trade  with  every  section  of  the  Union. 
Special  trains  pull  in  from  time  to  time  from  Chi- 
cago. Statesmen,  captains  of  high  finance,  cabinet 
ministers,  envoys  of  foreign  powers,  dignitaries  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth  and  students  from  abroad,  as 
well  as  from  our  own  farming  communities,  count 
it  a  pleasure  and  a  privilege  to  spend  a  day  at  the 
great  show  place  of  the  middle  west. 

And  then  one  sad  day  a  long  funeral  cortege 
passing  down  the  Elgin  road.  Death  ever  loved  the 
shining  target.  A  band  of  coal-black  Percheron 
fillies  tramping  in  single  file  alongside  in  the  pasture, 
stopping  only  at  the  fence  that  marks  the  end  of 
their  late  master's  landed  possessions — an  uncon- 
scious farewell  from  the  fields! 

But  how  shall  we  supply  the  wealth  of  detail 
necessary  to  complete  these  pictures?  Impossible. 
We  can  only  sketch. 

As  a  young  man  I  spent  several  short  vacations 
at  the  old  brick  cottage — the  birthplace  of  Mark 
Dunham,  as  well  as  of  his  son  and  successor, 
WiRTH.  The  latter  was  then  a  child  romping  under 
the  oaks  with  a  little  red  wagon.  I  grew  into  my 
own  vocation  during  the  period  of  Oaklawn's 
astounding  creation,  and  I  know  of  kindly  acts  and 
spoken   words   that   angels   in   heaven    must    have 


HISTORY    IN    THE    MAKING  229 


entered  up  to  Mark  W.  Dunham's  eternal  credit 
long  before  the  fateful  day  when  his  noble  spirit 
winged  its  way  homeward  to  the  skies.  Of  these, 
however,  I  may  not  speak. 

There  is  no  mistaking  the  place  held  by  the 
Percheron  in  American  commerce  and  agriculture. 
There  is  no  way  of  even  estimating  in  millions  of 
dollars  the  additions  to  the  national  wealth  directly 
due  to  the  introduction  of  this  exceptionally  sound 
and  serviceable  horse  of  heavy  draft.  And  wherever 
the  Percheron  is  known,  not  only  in  the  United 
States,  but  in  France  as  well,  there  is  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  man  who  really  made  the 
breeding  and  rearing  of  big-type  Percheron  horses 
an  important  national  industry  in  both  countries 
was  Mark  Wentworth  Dunham.  He  had  colleagues 
and  competitors  in  the  work  of  advising  America 
upon  the  subject  of  the  peculiar  adaptability  of  the 
French  horses  to  our  soil,  our  rural  highways,  our 
city  pavements,  our  climate  and  our  general  agri- 
cultural conditions;  but  he  had  infinitely  greater 
grasp  of  the  possibilities  involved  to  the  peoples  of 
both  nations  than  any  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
brought  to  the  task  of  educating  American  farmers 
up  to  an  appreciation  of  Percheron  blood  a  mind 
that  would  have  made  its  possessor  a  man  of  high 


230  AT   THE   SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


distinction   in  any  calling   to  which  he  might  have 
devoted  his  outstanding  talents. 

Up  to  the  time  Mr.  Dunham  became  interested 
in  this  business  there  had  been  only  sporadic  im- 
portations of  stallions  of  heavy  draft  from  various 
parts  of  northern  France,  and  nobody  in  the  west 
had  given  any  special  consideration  to  the  matter 
of  locating  the  particular  district  from  which  the 
material  best  fitted  for  our  western  uses  might  be 
most  satisfactorily  obtained.  Many  of  the  pioneer 
stallions  had  been  picked  up  near  Rouen  or  in  other 
communities  adjacent  to  the  English  Channel  by  early 
American  live-stock  importers,  who  had  finished  buy- 
ing cattle  or  sheep  in  Great  Britain  and  ran  across 
to  the  French  coast  to  see  what  might  be  observed, 
agriculturally  speaking,  without  making  any  special 
journeys  of  exploration  into  the  interior.  There  was 
then,  and  is  yet,  in  the  north  of  France  a  good  big 
horse  known  as  the  Boulonnais,  and  undoubtedly 
some  of  the  original  French  horses  brought  to 
America — and  indeed  also  others  brought  over  after 
the  era  of  stud  books  set  in — were  of  that  race; 
but  as  buyers  extended  their  purchases  southward 
through  the  territory  which  once  constituted  the 
province  of  Normandy,  they  found  good  colts  being 
developed   by  farmers  and  dealers   that   had   been 


HISTORY    IN    THE    MAKING  231 


bought  in  a  region  of  which  the  ancient  city  of 
Nogent-le-Rotrou  was  the  commercial  center.  And 
so  it  transpired  that  the  Perche  proper — famed  in 
song  and  story  as  "the  land  of  good  horses" — was 
"discovered." 

Mark  Dunham  was  a  student.  He  took  nothing 
for  granted.  He  wanted  to  know  more  about  the 
horses  of  the  different  regions,  and  while  little  in 
the  way  of  authentic  information  was  available  at 
the  time,  he  began,  in  person  and  by  proxy,  important 
investigations.  He  was  not  long  in  convincing  him- 
self that  the  heavier  types  produced  in  the  Perche 
were  bottomed  upon  blood  that  gave  them  a  value 
for  American  uses  beyond  any  other  race  of  drafters 
in  France.  The  district  had  for  generations  been 
noted  for  its  big,  long-distance  trotters  and  diligence 
horses,  capable  of  drawing  heavy  loads  at  a  rapid 
pace.  Tradition  has  it  that  the  activity  and  endur- 
ance of  these  animals  was  due  largely  to  the  use 
of  Oriental  blood,  but  recent  investigations  indicate 
that  at  least  some  of  these  legendary  Arabian  an- 
cestors were  more  or  less  mythical. 

Gen.  W.  T.  Walters,  a  wealthy  resident  of  Balti- 
more, who  had  spent  some  years  in  France  and 
was  a  great  admirer  of  a  good  horse,  had  already 
made  up  his  mind  that  the  Percheron  of  the  lighter 


232  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


sort  would  not  only  be  unequaled  for  draft  purposes 
in  Maryland,  but  that  well-matched  pairs  were  ideal 
for  carriage  work.  He  imported  a  considerable 
number  of  these  about  1866,  and  his  private  con- 
veyances, horsed  by  these  strong-going  grays,  were 
for  some  years  one  of  the  attractive  features  of 
Baltimore  streets  and  parkways.  Prior  to  that  date 
practically  all  of  the  big  horses  brought  from  France 
had  been  called  by  their  American  owners  "Nor- 
mans"; not  that  anybody  in  the  land  from  whence 
they  came  had  ever  thought  of  applying  that  title 
to  them,  but  simply  because  they  had  been  found 
and  bought  for  the  most  part  in  the  district  adja- 
cent to  the  Perche,  called  Normandy. 

These  "Normans"  had  already  more  than  made 
good  in  the  middle  west.  And  no  finer  demonstration 
of  the  value  of  agricultural  shows  has  to  be  recorded 
in  live-stock  history  than  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that 
it  was  at  an  Illinois  State  Fair  of  the  early  seventies 
that  this  Dupage  county  farmer,  M.  W.  Dunham,  saw 
for  the  first  time  an  imported  "Norman"  stallion,  and 
was  so  greatly  impressed  that  the  beginning  of  his 
own  subsequently  sensational  activities  in  this  field 
has  to  be  dated  from  that  exhibition.  The  "Fletcher 
Norman  Horse  Go."  was  organized,  with  Mr.  Dunham 
as  one  of  the  stockholders.    Old  Success  and  French 


HISTORY    IN    THE    MAKING  233 


Emperor  were  purchased,  and  from  that  transaction 
dates  the  foundation  of  the  most  extraordinary 
achievement  based  upon  draft-horse  breeding  the 
world  has  ever  known. 

Mr.  Dunham  was  first  of  all  a  good  farmer. 
Efficiency  was  demanded  in  the  management  of  his 
land  and  crops.  He  knew  the  rewards  that  wait 
upon  thorough  tillage,  joined  with  stock- keeping. 
The  "Norman"  half-bloods  in  front  of  plows,  harrows, 
cultivators  and  harvesters  made  things  move.  They 
would  be  a  boon  inestimable  to  American  farming. 
A  great  future  loomed  before  them.  An  illimitable 
field  opened.  Others  were  plodding  along  in  the 
business  of  developing  what  his  keen  eye  saw  could 
be  made  an  important  matter  from  a  national  eco- 
nomic standpoint,  and,  incidentally,  a  profitable  form 
of  enterprise.  He  bought  his  partners'  interests, 
utilized  his  bank  credit  and  went  to  his  life-work 
with  a  courage  and  determination  born  of  complete 
faith  in  the  certainty  of  success,  and  when  he  had 
finished  he  had  not  only  amassed  a  personal  fortune 
in  a  legitimate  field,  but  the  Percheron  was  placed 
in  almost  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  northern 
states,  and  France  was  the  richer  by  reason  of 
the  enormous  American  demand  that  still  pours  a 
steady    stream    of  ''Yankee"  gold  into   the  savings 


234  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE   STOCK   YARD    INN 


banks    patronized    by    those    shrewd,  home -loving, 
thrifty  farmers  of  the  valley  of  the  Huisne. 

The  Percheron  Stud  Books  of  France  and  America 
had  from  their  first  inception  the  powerful  support 
of  the  wizard  of  Oaklawn.  In  fact,  they  were  almost 
his  own  children.  He  knew  that  pedigree  records 
must  sooner  or  later  be  demanded  in  the  develop- 
ment of  these  horses,  as  they  had  already  been 
found  essential  in  other  lines,  and  with  characteristic 
enterprise  and  breadth  of  outlook  he  set  the  forces 
in  motion  that  led  to  the  printing  of  the  initial 
volumes  in  Nogent  and  Chicago.  None  knew  better 
than  he  that  these  could  be  at  best  the  mere  crude 
beginnings  of  registration.  Criticism,  therefore,  di- 
rected against  errors  and  omissions  in  this  pioneering 
work  fails  to  detract  in  the  least  from  the  soundness 
and  value  of  the  idea  which  those  early  publications 
reflected.  There  were  naught  but  traditions  and 
data  of  a  wholly  unsatisfactory  character  to  serve 
as  a  starting  point.  The  situation  in  that  respect 
differed  little,  however,  from  that  which  has  con- 
fronted the  founders  of  all  existing  pedigree  regis- 
tries. Those  who  were  charged  with  the  thankless 
task  of  assembling  the  foundation  material  in  this 
undertaking  simply  did  the  best  they  could  with 
the  meager  information  then  available.    The  use  of 


HISTORY    IN   THE    MAKING  235 


the  misnomer  "Norman"  was  first  of  all  properly 
abandoned.  Mr.  Dunham  and  his  confreres  had  no 
objection  to  anyone  buying  and  bringing  to  America 
horses  from  the  Boulonnais  or  other  breeding  dis- 
tricts; but  he  believed  that  the  Perche  was  the  home 
of  the  best  of  the  French  local  types,  and  concen- 
trated his  efforts  upon  establishing  the  truth  of  his 
contentions.  Had  he  known  positively  what  has 
since  been  established  by  recent  researches  in  the 
archives  of  the  French  Government  and  of  the 
Haras  du  Pin,  he  would  doubtless  have  been  even 
more  forceful  in  his  claims  for  his  favorites. 

In  another  volume  recently  prepared  under  the 
writer's  direction,  this  and  other  matters  of  co-ordi- 
nate interest  have  received  such  full  attention  that 
they  will  not  here  be  further  pursued.  Neither  will 
even  an  outline  of  Mark  Dunham's  own  story  be 
here  attempted.  His  importing  and  breeding  opera- 
tions were  too  extensive.  His  ambitious  and  patri- 
otic attempt  to  make  the  west  more  independent 
of  the  old  world  by  the  purchase  and  transfer  to 
Oaklawn  of  a  great  number  of  the  best  mares  of 
the  Perche,  the  disappointments  attending  that 
historic  venture,  his  demonstration  that  the  breed 
must  ever  depend  upon  the  progeny  of  farm  mares 
at  work  in  the  fields  rather  than  upon  large  collec- 


256  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


tions  maintained  in  idleness,  the  marvelous  effects 
of  the  Brilliant  blood,  the  incursion  into  the  coach 
horse  field,  the  building  of  Oaklawn  House,  the  enter- 
tainment of  innumerable  parties  of  distinguished  vis- 
itors, the  tragic  death  of  the  great  architect  of  the 
Percheron  fortunes — these  and  collateral  matters 
of  incidental  interest  cannot  be  drawn  in  detail  into 
this  reference.  He  was  probably  the  greatest  sales- 
man the  horse-breeding  interests  of  America  have 
ever  known. 

Mr.  Dunham's  death  in  February,  1899,  at  67 
years  of  age,  in  the  very  prime  of  his  mature  man- 
hood, was  a  distinct  calamity  to  his  country.  It 
occurred  as  a  result  of  blood-poisoning  from  infection 
communicated  in  the  course  of  an  examination  of 
an  infected  hoof.  I  was  alone  with  him  for  an  hour 
the  afternoon  before  his  death.  His  mind  was  clear; 
his  facing  of  his  fate  heroic.  He  could  not  lie  down, 
so  great  his  suffering.  Propped  up  in  an  invalid's 
chair  he  talked  not  of  himself,  but  of  my  own  little 
concerns,  and  I  might  here  give  an  instance  of  his 
always  self-sacrificing  way,  when  anyone  in  whom 
he  was  interested  was  involved. 

Secretary  Wilson  during  the  winter  of  1898-9 
had  asked  President  McKinley  to  appoint  me  a 
member  of  the  United   States  Commission   to   the 


HISTORY    IN    THE    MAKING  237 


Paris  Universal  Exposition  of  1900.  The  Commis- 
sioner-Generalship of  the  Commission  had,  however, 
already  been  offered  to  Ferd.  W.  Peck,  another  Chi- 
cagoan,  and  the  President  was  finding  it  difficult,  for 
political  and  geographical  reasons,  to  comply  in  my 
case  with  Wilson's  request.  Mr.  Dunham  had  spent 
most  of  the  season  in  France  on  business,  and  when 
he  returned  found  no  end  of  work  demanding  his 
attention  at  Oaklawn.  He  happened  in  "The  Gazette" 
office  one  day  shortly  afterward,  and  inquired  if  I 
expected  to  receive  the  compliment  of  the  exposition 
appointment.  I  told  him  I  did  not  think  it  possible 
under  the  circumstances,  and  that  I  had  given  up  all 
idea  of  it.  He  was  silent  for  a  moment,  and  then 
asked,  **Do  you  suppose  that  it  would  do  any  good  if 
I  were  to  go  to  Washington  myself?"  Grateful,  of 
course,  at  this  manifestation  of  interest,  I  replied,  **I 
doubt  it,  and  what  is  more,  I  wouldn't  think  of  asking 
you  to  do  it,  for  you  have  only  been  home  a  few 
days."  His  eyes  twinkled — those  who  knew  him  will 
know  just  what  I  mean  by  that — as  he  replied:  "Well, 
it's  probably  hopeless  as  it  stands,  isn't  it?"  I  acqui- 
esced, but  added  that  it  was  not  a  matter  of  any 
special  importance  anyhow.  "Well,"  he  rejoined,  "I 
am  going."  And  he  did.  Three  days  of  his  own  val- 
uable time  were  given,  and  at  his  own  expense  he 


238  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


visited  the  national  capital  in  my  behalf  merely 
because  he  thought  it  would  be  worth  something 
to  me  to  receive  this  recognition. 

Meantime,  he  was  stricken,  and  the  announce- 
ment of  my  appointment,  which  followed  some  little 
time  after  his  death,  had  not  yet  been  made. 
It  was  of  this,  not  of  his  own  fast-ebbing  life,  he 
persisted  in  talking,  even  as  he  was  descending  into 
the  darkness.  Presently  he  ceased  speaking,  and 
held  out  his  hands  for  me  to  grasp.  And  then,  after 
a  little  interval,  he  said,  "I  am  not  afraid  to  go." 
Our  last  interview  had  ended.  He  died  next  day, 
this  man  with  the  courage  of  a  lion  and  the  heart 
of  a  little  child. 

Your  cigars,  I  see,  have  long  since  turned  to 
ashes,  and  thus  also  now  dissolves  our  fleeting  vision 
of  a  great  career  back  into  the  elusive  element  from 
whence  it  sprang.  The  portrait,  however,  hangs 
there,  just  as  when  we  saw  it  first.  Possibly  if  you 
scan  it  closely  now  you  may  detect  a  glow  that  was 
not  there  before. 


XXVII 
SOME  PURELY  AMERICAN  ACHIEVEMENTS 

The  portraits  of  William  S.  VanNatta  and  Tom 
Clark  look  lonely  now  in  this  collection  because,  up 
to  date,  they  are  the  sole  representatives  of  one  of 
the  greatest  groups  of  cattle-breeders  yet  developed 
by  the  live-stock  industries  of  the  United  States. 
The  Hereford  alone  among  all  the  valuable  British 
types  of  improved  4omestic  animals  has  been  im- 
proved over  his  English  form  by  American  minds  and 
methods. 

One  exception  should  be  made  to  this  general 
statement.  The  Berkshire  swine  have  been  decid- 
edly bettered  in  this  country,  from  an  American 
point  of  view,  very  largely  through  the  genius  of  Hon. 
N.  H.  Gentry  of  Missouri.  **Nick,"  as  his  friends 
love  to  call  him,  is  beyond  question  one  of  the  great- 
est constructive  forces  ever  identified  with  American 
stock-breeding  activities.  His  work  with  the  Berk- 
shire is  fairly  comparable  with  the  best  efforts  of 
the  most  successful  breeders  on  either  side  the 
Atlantic,  and  if  those  who  are  interested  in  the 
American  hog  as  a  prime  factor  in  cornbelt  pros- 
perity do  not  see  to  it  that  his  portrait  is  placed  in 
the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  rooms,  they  will  be  failing 
in  an  obvious  obligation.    The  story  of  Mr.  Gentry's 

239 


240  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


production  of  the  big,  broad-ribbed,  heavy-hammed, 
deep-sided,  mellow-fleshed,  early-maturing  and  finely- 
finished  Berkshire  hog  by  the  concentration  of  the 
blood  of  old  Longfellow  and  other  porcine  celebrities, 
will,  when  written,  prove  to  be  worthy  of  ranking 
with  the  best  achievements  of  brainy  men  in  other 
realms  of  stock-breeding.  Here  again  the  Bakewell 
scheme  in  the  hands  of  a  master  in  its  application 
proved  the  touchstone  of  a  triumphant  success. 

The  Hereford  is  playing  such  a  stellar  role  in 
the  range  cattle  business  in  North  America  that  it 
is  high  time  that  this  fact  find  more  adequate 
recognition  in  our  embryonic  national  gallery.  In  my 
judgment  there  could  be  no  greater  service  rendered 
those  who  are  perpetuating  the  great  Hereford- 
shire grazing  breed  than  the  immediate  authorization 
of  portraits  of  Ben  Tomkins,  John  Price  of  Ryall, 
the  Hewers,  Monkhouse,  Rogers,  Tudge,  Turner, 
His  Grace  of  Coventry,  Arkwright,  and  other  Here- 
ford fathers.  And  when  we  recall  the  wonderful 
work  done  in  our  own  middle  west  by  Gulbertson, 
Gudgell  and  Simpson,  Funkhouser,  Adams  Earl, 
Charles  B.  Stuart,  and  their  contemporaries  and 
successors,  it  is  self-evident  that  a  grand  Hereford 
room  is  to  be  one  of  the  inspiring  features  of  the 
Saddle  and  Sirloin   Club   of  our  imagination! 


SOME    PURELY    AMERICAN    ACHIEVEMENTS  241 


I  do  not  hesitate  to  advance  the  claim,  realizing 
fully  its  sweeping  nature,  that  the  evolution  and 
fixing  of  the  modern  American  Hereford  type, 
through  adroit  manipulation  of  the  imported  mate- 
rial, has  been  one  of  the  most  notable  achievements 
in  all  the  annals  of  cattle-breeding,  ancient  or 
modern.  In  their  successful  execution  of  a  well- 
conceived  plan,  in  the  extraordinary  accomplish- 
ments following  the  blending  of  the  Anxiety,  Gar- 
field, Wilton,  Sir  Richard  2d  and  other  bloods,  the 
Hereford  cattle-breeders  of  the  cornbelt  have  given 
proof  of  a  skill  and  capacity  for  original  work  in 
type  modification  and  development  not  surpassed 
by  any  like  group  in  the  old  world  at  any  period, 
and  not  yet  equaled  on  this  side  the  Atlantic,  in  so 
far  as  the  records  of  the  flesh-bearing  breeds  of 
cattle  are  concerned. 

I  have  personal  recollection  of  what  the  English 
Hereford  was  in  the  late  seventies  and  early  eigh- 
ties. I  knew  the  Anxietys,  "old  Grove,"  Tregrehan 
and  "old  Dick."  I  saw  Garfield  when  first  imported. 
I  saw  the  Wiltons  in  all  their  Royal  showyard 
beauty.  Year  in  and  year  out  I  made  the  rounds 
of  the  pastures  and  paddocks  in  which  the  English 
ingredients  were  being  mixed,  and  year  by  year  I 
watched  the  ever-rising  standard  of  the  American 


242  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


product  as  the  beautiful  show  herds  came  forward 
for  public  praise.  The  grace  of  Lord  Wilton,  the  sub- 
stance of  old  Horace,  the  mellowness  of  The  Grove 
3d,  the  quarters  and  loin  of  Anxiety  4th,  fused  by 
the  fires  of  an  enthusiasm  and  zeal  fairly  unparal- 
leled in  animal  breeding,  gave  the  western  world  the 
most  uniformly  excellent  type  of  cattle  adapted  to  a 
particular  purpose  as  yet  credited  to  American 
breeding. 

True,  we  were  indebted  to  Herefordshire  for  the 
original  seed,  and  truly  we  must  credit  something 
of  all  this  to  Herefordshire  men  who  became  Amer- 
icans in  time  to  participate  in  this  high  achievement. 
Likewise  we  cheerfully  concede  that  even  yet  we 
find  it  helpful  to  return  now  and  then  to  the  old 
home  for  revivifying  influences.  It  is  meet,  there- 
fore, that  the  pictures  of  William  VanNatta  as  a 
rare  type  of  the  constructive  American,  and  Tom 
Glark,  as  a  stamp  of  the  English -born  contingent 
that  so  loyally  supplemented  American  elforts  with 
the  "white  faces,"  should  hang  side  by  side  upon 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  walls. 

The  development  of  the  Glub  along  broad  lines 
will  naturally  call  for  a  complete  exposition  of  the 
origin  and  growth  of  the  range  business.  That  phase 
of  the  upbuilding  of  our  biggest  American   industry 


SOME    PURELY    AMERICAN    ACHIEVEMENTS  243 


is  of  course  the  most  spectacular  of  all.  The  por- 
traits of  Conrad  Kohrs  and  Murdo  Mackenzie  alone 
now  serve  to  remind  us  of  this  vital  part  of  our 
live-stock  production.  I  hope  that  some  day  the 
pen  of  a  John  Clay  may  be  turned  loose  upon  an 
account  of  the  introduction  and  dissemination  of 
the  herds  and  flocks  throughout  the  grassy  empire 
of  the  plains  and  mountain  meadows,  and  that  the 
future  will  find  a  great  Saddle  and  Sirloin  hall 
filled  with  reminders  of  the  men  who  have  subdued 
the  western  wild,  and  made  it  a  prolific  source  of 
profit  and  supply  to  the  American  people.  In  so  far 
as  the  northern  range  is  concerned  Gonrad  Kohrs 
stands  out  like  one  of  the  snowy  peaks  of  the  land 
he  has  helped  to  civilize.  The  Panhandle  has  known 
no  greater  master  of  range  cattle  strategy  than 
Murdo  Mackenzie.  He  is  at  present  devoting  his 
mature  judgment  touching  ranch  management  to  a 
big  Brazilian  syndicate,  but  a  glad  welcome  awaits 
his  return  to  the  Rocky  Mountain  states. 

Fortunes  have  been  won  and  lost  in  this  western 
land  and  cattle  business.  Some  men  had  success 
quickly  thrust  upon  them  only  to  see  the  glittering 
prize  slip  as  rapidly  from  their  grasp.  Others 
attained  the  summits  of  eminence  and  wealth  only 
after  long  and   trying  experiences   in  the   foothills 


244  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  the  deserts  that  barred  their  progress.  Kohrs 
and  Mackenzie  may  well  be  taken  as  representative 
men  of  the  latter  class. 

What  men  of  British  descent  have  done  in  Aus- 
tralia and  New  Zealand,  what  men  of  Spanish  blood 
have  accomplished  on  subtropical  ranges,  is  a  part 
of  the  history  of  live-stock  progress  of  which  all 
may  well  be  proud;  but  if  we  consider  the  original 
discouragements  and  the  steadily  restrictive  operation 
of  our  national  policies  in  respect  to  meat  and  wool 
production  in  our  own  arid  west,  it  must  be  said 
that  nowhere  else  have  men  wrested  more  in  the 
way  of  animal  production,  for  the  general  good  of  a 
great  people,  than  have  those  who,  at  both  personal 
and  financial  peril,  planted  and  still  maintain  the 
standard  of  pastoral  husbandry  from  the  Rio  Grande 
to  the  Saskatchewan.  Big  men  have  been  developed 
in  this  big  man's  field,  but  the  nation  and  the  people 
have  dealt  none  too  generously  by  them. 

Speaking  of  things  stock-wise  that  represent 
distinctively  American  work  of  an  original  character, 
it  is  never  to  be  overlooked  that  the  mortgage- 
lifting,  home-building  lard  hog  is  one  of  the  natural 
products  of  this  fat  land  of  the  Indian  corn.  We 
have  already  said  that  the  Berkshire  has  been 
palpably   improved   in    the    middle   states  from  the 


SOME    PURELY    AMERICAN    ACHIEVEMENTS  245 


point  of  view  of  adaptability  to  American  purposes. 
The  Poland -China,  the  Duroc -Jersey,  the  Chester 
White  and  the  Hampshire  are  real  American  types, 
and  their  products  figure  a  huge  total  in  any  anal- 
ysis of  American  sources  of  wealth.  Great  Britain 
has  evolved  nothing  in  the  animal  kingdom  more 
nearly  meeting  a  national  need  than  these  marvel- 
ous swine  of  ours. 

While  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  exploit  in  this 
connection  all  the  triumphs  of  American  stock- 
breeding  as  contrasted  with  old  Britain,  we  should 
not  in  this  relation  fail  to  refer  to  our  harness  and 
saddle  horses — matchless  in  all  the  world  for  the 
special  purposes  they  were  designed  to  serve — our 
old-time  work  with  the  Vermont  Merino  sheep,  and 
our  triumphs  in  the  poultry  world.  Enough,  and  more 
than  enough,  has  been  worked  out  upon  American 
soil  to  demonstrate  that  when  necessity  or  impulse 
spurs  them  on,  our  people  can  be  quite  as  clever 
and  capable  in  the  application  of  scientific  principles 
along  untried  paths  as  their  brethren  beyond  the 
seas. 

This  fact  is  here  brought  out  to  show  that  the 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  has  at  its  very  doors 
a  field  in  which  recognition  should  be  freely  and 
indeed  lavishly  extended.    There  can  be  no  higher 


246  AT   THE    SIGN    OF   THE    STOCK   YARD    INN 


stimulus  to  the  American  stock-breeder  of  the  future 
than  contemplation  of  the  careers  of  the  great 
American  stock-breeders  of  the  past.  Where  is 
there  any  fit  collection  of  their  portraits  and  suit- 
able mementos  of  what  they  have  created?  Where 
is  fitting  public  record  of  their  service  to  the 
country? 


XXVIII 

THE  LAIRD  OF  NETHERHALL 

Since  first  its  doors  were  opened  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  Club  has  entertained  no  greater  figure  in  the 
animal-breeding  world  than  the  late  Andrew  Mont- 
gomery of  Netherhall.  We  are  perhaps  not  yet  far 
enough  removed  from  the  field  he  occupied  to  take 
the  full  measure  of  his  greatness.  A  succeeding 
generation  with  the  right  perspective  will  in  all 
human  probability  write  his  name  near  the  very  top 
of  the  list  of  those  who  in  comparatively  recent 
years  have  improved  upon  the  work  of  the  original 
breed-builders  of  Great  Britain.  The  "classy  Clydes- 
dale" that  captivates  so  many  showyard  visitors  by 
his  matchless  grace  is  not  the  sole  creation  of  any 
one  man's  brain.  Like  the  Aberdeenshire  Shorthorn, 
the  Aberdeen -Angus,  the  Galloways,  Ayrshires,  West 
Highlanders  and  the  Black-Faced  Mountain  Sheep, 
he  is  numbered  among  the  many  treasured  types  of 
improved  domestic  animals  given  by  Caledonia  to  the 
farming  world.  The  story  of  the  Clyde  has  yet  to  be 
written.  It  will  match  that  of  the  other  leading  mod- 
ern breeds,  and  it  will  be  a  long  roll  of  honor  that 
lists  the  names  of  those  who  first  differentiated  this 
Scottish  type  from  the  sturdy  cart  horse  found  south 
of  Berwick  and  Carlisle;  but  wherever  the  Clydesdale 

247 


248  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


horse  has  gone  during  the  present  generation  of  men 
— and  that  means  wherever  men  of  British  birth  live 
upon  the  lands  bounded  by  the  seven  seas — there  is 
the  name  and  the  work  of  Andrew  Montgomery 
already  known  and  recognized. 

In  his  selection  of  Macgregor  as  a  yearling  at 
£65  and  his  immediate  insistence  that  he  had 
acquired  possession  of  the  one  best  asset  of  the 
breed  at  that  date  in  Scotland,  we  have  practically 
a  repetition  of  the  case  of  Bates  and  Belvidere. 
Asked  by  David  Riddell  of  Blackhall,  owner  of 
Darnley — Macgregor's  sire — what  he  would  take  for 
the  newly-purchased  colt,  Andrew  promptly  replied, 
"£1,000  and  Darnley."  And  then  began  that  dou- 
bling in  of  the  blood  of  Darnley  and  old  Prince  of 
Wales  that  has  since  been  little  less  than  a  reve- 
lation to  the  Clydesdale  breeding  world.  At  about 
the  same  time  he  picked  Macgregor,  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery had  the  discernment  and  good  fortune  to 
buy  for  £100  a  yearling  filly  called  Moss  Rose 
that  was  destined  to  acquire  a  celebrity  second  to 
no  other  draft  mare  known  to  equine  records.  His 
contemporaries  were  not  long  now  in  discovering 
that  a  new  Richmond  was  indeed  in  Bosworth  field, 
and  that  all  had  to  reckon  not  only  with  his  show- 
yard    entries,  but   his   judgments.     Lawrence    Drew 


THE    LAIRD    OF    NETHERHALL  249 


of  Merryton  and  Prince  of  Wales  were  names  to 
conjure  with  in  the  Valley  of  the  Clyde  prior  to 
Andrew  Montgomery's  powerful  advocacy  of  **a  thick 
horse,  richt  at  the  grun."  The  upstanding  type 
with  short  ribs,  no  matter  how  nice  in  their  "kits" 
and  hoofs,  never  appealed  to  him  except  as  good 
crossing  material  for  the  heavier-bodied  Darnleys. 
And  Andrew,  like  Amos  Gruickshank,  had  a 
brother  who  gave  him  stanch  and  ever  intelligent 
support.  The  partnership  that  became  a  familiar 
one  the  world  over  as  "A.  &  W.  Montgomery"  was 
formed,  and  the  purchase  of  the  famous  Baron's 
Pride,  which  proved  the  real  foundation  of  the  great- 
est successes  scored  by  the  Montgomerys,  is  credited 
by  Mr.  Mac  Neil  age,  the  keeper  of  the  Scottish 
Clydesdale  seals,  to  William.  Doubtless,  however, 
this  happy  selection  really  represented  a  joint  judg- 
ment. Together  they  pressed  actively  the  Clydes- 
dale claims  in  every  direction.  They  succeeded  in 
interesting  certain  of  the  nobility  and  large  landed 
proprietors  of  England.  They  personally  visited  and 
made  sales  in  continental  Europe,  Canada  and  the 
United  States,  assisting  conspicuously  in  the  pro- 
curing of  great  geldings  to  be  exhibited  at  Toronto, 
Chicago  and  elsewhere.  Horses  of  their  production 
were  fitted  and  shown  for  years  at   all  the   leading 


250  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


British  and  North  American  shows,  and  were  always 
in  the  very  first  flight. 

Personally  a  man  of  fine  presence,  a  born  judge 
of  animal  form,  skilled  perhaps  beyond  all  his  con- 
temporaries in  the  blending  of  Clydesdale  types, 
shrewd  and  diplomatic  enough  to  have  graced  any 
chancellery  in  Europe,  Andrew  Montgomery  easily 
stood  at  the  head  of  his  profession  at  the  time  of 
his  death  at  64  years  of  age,  in  1912.  To  him 
Scotland  is  indebted  more  than  to  any  other  one 
man  for  the  great  Clydesdale  activity  and  advance 
that  set  in  during  the  early  seventies.  The  study 
of  how  the  best  Clydesdales  have  been  produced 
since  the  Montgomery  era  was  inaugurated  is  one 
that  is  at  the  present  time  interesting  deeply  a  large 
number  of  devoted  admirers  of  the  breed,  who  find 
the  latter-day  accomplishments  in  this  field  intensely 
fascinating. 


XXIX 

A  LOVER  OF  THE  LAND 

In  a  preceding  sketch  entitled  "From  Sire  to 
Sons"  attention  has  been  drawn  to  a  typical  English 
case  of  inherited  farm  properties  splendidly  carried 
on  by  a  succeeding  generation.  This  following  of 
the  son  in  the  footsteps  of  the  father  comes  as 
nearly  being  the  rule  in  Great  Britain  in  all  walks 
of  life  as  it  is  the  exception  in  the  United  States. 
Our  notes  on  the  career  of  Gapt.  James  N.  Brown 
remind  us,  however,  that  we  too  have  some  striking 
instances  of  filial  carrying  out  of  paternal  plans  in 
our  own  country.  In  fact  there  can  be  no  finer 
illustration  held  up  to  the  rising  generation  of  farm- 
ers' sons  than  that  of  Gapt.  Brown's  son  William, 
whose  death  occurred  in  1908  at  the  age  of  69 
years.  His  case  fairly  falls  within  the  purview  of 
this  work,  not  perhaps  by  reason  of  any  striking 
individual  achievement  in  the  realm  of  farming  and 
cattle-breeding  on  the  part  of  the  deceased,  but 
rather  because  he  stood  out  in  bold  relief  as  a  fine 
representative  of  a  type  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
Glub  delights  to  honor — a  type  which  unfortunately 
has  been  all  too  rare  along  the  trail  that  began  in 
the  flowery  prairies  and  woodlands  of  the  early  days 

251 


252  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  leads  up  to  the  vortex  of  contemporary  western 
business  life. 

Inheriting,  along  with  his  brothers  Charles  and 
Benjamin,  a  princely  domain  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
cornbelt,  gifted  by  nature  with  a  fine  mind  and  sub- 
jected to  the  usual  allurements  of  young  men  of 
his  class  in  the  middle  west,  he  yet  clung  to  the 
simple  life,  resisting  steadfastly  to  the  end  the 
ceaseless  calls  of  the  city.  In  the  noonday  and  in 
the  evening  of  his  years  the  soft,  cool  touch  of  the 
blue  grass,  the  rustle  of  the  ripening  corn,  the  chatter 
of  the  squirrels  in  the  giant  oaks,  the  highly-bred 
cattle  in  the  park,  the  burly  bullocks  grazing  in 
luxurious  pastures,  provided  for  him  a  sure  and  safe 
defense  against  all  the  vicissitudes  inevitably  attend- 
ing the  passage  of  man's  allotted  three  score  years 
and  ten.  Happy  indeed  the  man  who  is  permitted 
to  live  out  a  long  life  in  sweet  content,  honored 
and  respected  far  and  near  in  the  midst  of  such 
prodigal  pastoral  wealth  and  beauty  as  surrounded 
William  Brown  at  Grove  Park  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave. 

He  might  have  won  success,  as  the  world  meas- 
ures success,  in  law  or  medicine  or  politics.  He 
might  have  sought,  as  so  many  others  born  under 
similiar  conditions  have  done,  "the  bubble  reputation" 


A    LOVER    OF    THE    LAND  263 


even  at  the  cost  of  forsaking  the  ancestral  acres; 
but  the  lure  of  the  land,  an  heritage  perhaps  from 
his  soil-loving  parents,  saved  him  from  what  would 
have  been  to  one  of  his  tastes  a  fatal  error.  Some 
people  have  said  he  was  lacking  in  ambition  and 
enterprise.  Well,  perhaps  that  was  true  in  a  way. 
He  did  not  possess  that  overflowing  vitality  and 
restlessness  that  make  a  man  "get  up  and  go'* 
in  spite  of  all  obstacles.  To  him  the  eternal  mys- 
tery of  the  variation  of  animals  and  plants  was  a 
world  close  at  hand  well  worth  exploring.  He  may 
have  been  something  of  a  dreamer.  If  close  com- 
munion with  nature  in  field,  garden,  forest  or  paddock 
is  idling,  he  spent  hours  which  others  might  have 
passed  more  actively,  but  not  perhaps  in  the  end 
more  profitably.  He  was  wedded  to  the  old  home; 
to  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree;  to  the  wonders  wrought 
by  the  subtle  alchemy  of  the  elements;  to  the  tran- 
quil beauty  of  the  star-lit  night;  to  the  glory  of 
the  sunset  and  the  dawn;  to  the  roar  of  the  wind 
through  the  noble  woods  of  Island  Grove;  to  the 
pageantry  of  the  passing  storm — a  man  of  sentiment 
as  well  as  sense. 

William  Brown  often  bewailed  the  fact  that  corn- 
state  farmers  did  not  breed  more  good  cattle.  As 
high  as  eight  hundred  to  one  thousand  head  of  bul- 


254  AT   THE    SIGN    OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


locks  were  annually  required  to  consume  the  wealth 
of  grass  produced  on  the  estate,  but  it  unfortunately 
became  impossible  to  buy  these  direct  from  the  farm- 
ers of  Illinois,  Iowa  or  Missouri.  Believing,  neverthe- 
less, that  it  was  the  duty  of  those  who  occupied  a 
conspicuous  position  in  the  agricultural  community 
to  set  a  proper  example  in  this  regard,  pedigreed 
cattle  were  steadily  maintained  in  addition  to  the 
extensive  feeding  operations  carried  on,  and  the  herd 
which  had  been  the  first  to  be  founded  in  the  state 
continued  to  be  a  dependable  source  of  supply  for 
those  who  appreciated  the  importance  of  good  cattle 
as  an  essential  adjunct  to  proper  soil  conservation  in 
the  middle  west. 

For  forty  years  William  Brown  was  a  regular 
buyer  of  feeding  cattle  in  the  Chicago  market. 
From  1870  until  about  1890  the  plan  was  to  buy 
three-year-old  steers  each  autumn  and  graze  them 
for  twelve  months,  no  grain  whatever  being  used. 
It  became  apparent  latterly,  however,  that  it  would 
not  pay  on  such  high-priced  land  to  compete  with 
the  range  on  grass-fed  beef,  and  so  the  plow  was 
put  through  some  of  the  richest  blue-grass  sod 
ever  seen  in  the  west  and  preparations  made  to 
grow  and  feed  corn.  After  grain-finished  bullocks 
began    to    be    produced    the    number    carried    was 


A    LOVER    OF    THE    LAND  255 


reduced  to  about  400  per  year.  Good,  well-bred 
two-year-old  cattle  were  bought  in  the  fall  and 
carried  in  the  stalkfields  until  spring.  About  March 
1  they  were  put  in  pasture  well  matted  with  cured 
grass,  and  the  feeding  of  ear  corn  was  commenced. 
The  grain  was  thrown  out  daily  from  the  wagons 
onto  the  grass,  but  never  in  the  same  place  on 
consecutive  days.  Hogs,  of  course,  followed  the 
cattle.  The  beef  thus  made  in  the  orthodox  corn- 
belt  fashion  was  of  prime  quality,  and  the  Grove 
Park  cattle  were  in  eager  request  whenever  they 
were  offered  in  the  market. 

It  is  perhaps  unfortunate  for  the  state  and  for  the 
farming  community  at  large  that  William  Brown  did 
not  devote  more  of  his  time  to  public  affairs.  He 
was  too  modest  and  unassuming  to  push  himself  for- 
ward, and  too  fond  of  the  clover  blossoms  and  the 
cattle  to  permit  his  friends  to  saddle  upon  him  any 
irksome  responsibilities.  A  charming  host,  a  reserved 
yet  genial  companion,  not  readily  drawn  out,  but  talk- 
ing easily  and  entertainingly,  he  was  a  man  of  great 
natural  refinement  and  mental  grace. 

In  these  days  when  men  are  so  prone  to  lease 
their  lands  to  be  farmed  by  tenants  who  usually  leave 
the  soil  poorer  than  they  found  it;  when  so  many 
fickle-minded  folk  are  coming  and  going  in  the  cattle- 


256  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


breeding  world;  when  other  industries  are  absorbing 
so  much  of  the  best  blood  of  our  western  land-owning 
families,  it  may  be  well  to  pause  a  moment,  as  we 
contemplate  the  trend  from  the  farm  to  the  counting- 
room,  to  note  this  instance  of  one  who  throughout  a 
long  and  useful  life  proved  that  a  man  possessing 
gentle  birth,  classical  education  and  qualities  fitting 
him  to  shine  almost  anywhere  in  the  busy  haunts  of 
men,  can  be  prosperous,  contented  and  eminently 
useful  in  his  day  and  generation,  even  though  far 
removed  from  daily  contact  with  those  things  which 
so  many  seem  to  regard  as  essential  to  their  hap- 
piness. 


XXX 

FIAT  LUX 

We  approach  now  another  type.  You  will  find 
the  pictures  in  the  main  corridor  as  you  enter  the 
Club.  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  journalists,  scien- 
tists, teachers,  authors  or  even  cabinet  officers  have 
any  special  claims  to  the  conspicuous  recognition 
here  accorded  them.  That  the  breed-makers  and 
their  disciples  are  entitled  to  first  and  best  consid- 
eration in  this  general  scheme  goes  without  saying. 
However,  as  the  object  of  it  all  is  educational,  I 
suppose  that  active  promoters  and  forwarders  of 
the  cause  fall  legitimately  within  the  general  scope 
of  Saddle  and  Sirloin  purposes.  The  darkness  that 
once  dwelt  upon  the  face  of  the  agricultural  deep 
is  disappearing.  That  the  light  is  breaking  is  due 
in  large  measure  to  the  type  of  men  here  repre- 
sented. Each  of  those  whose  portrait  here  appears 
has  helped  to  bear  aloft  the  torch  of  knowledge 
somewhere  along  the  highways  or  byways  of  our 
progress. 

The  first  of  our  great  collegians  to  stir  the 
country  deeply  upon  the  subject  of  animal  feeding 
along  scientific  lines  was  Dean  Henry,  whose  por- 
trait, as  already  recorded,  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  memorial  galleries.    It  is  indeed 

257 


258  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


diflficult  to  measure  the  far-reaching  influence  of 
Prof.  Henry's  work.  His  writings  have  been  for 
years  the  subject  of  study  and  discussion  in  every 
land.  Earnestness,  sincerity,  honesty  and  a  peren- 
nially effervescing  enthusiasm  made  him  a  tremen- 
dous power  in  the  field  of  higher  agricultural  training, 
at  a  time  when  the  cause  had  not  yet  felt  the  full 
force  of  the  popular  support  since  accorded  the 
great  movement  which  has  been  well  reflected  in  the 
corridor  of  which  we  speak  by  portraits  of  Profs. 
Craig,  Gurtiss,  Garlyle,  Davenport,  Plumb,  Waters, 
Skinner,  Babcock  and  their  colleagues,  presented  to 
the  Glub  through  subscriptions  made  up  by  members 
of  the  student  body  at  the  respective  institutions 
represented. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  state  of  Wisconsin  has 
been  exceptionally  prolific  of  men  who  have  fairly 
won  the  shoulder-straps  of  high  distinction  in  the 
service  of  the  live  stock  and  farming  world.  In  the 
old  days  George  Murray  of  Racine,  Jerome  I.  Gase, 
George  Harding,  Rufus  B.  Kellogg,  the  Brockways, 
H.  D.  McKinney,  I.  J.  Glapp  and  their  contemporaries 
kept  the  fires  of  good  breeding  burning  brightly,  and 
into  the  service  of  the  people  at  large  there  came  that 
diamond  in  the  rough,  the  Hon.  Jere  Rusk,  first 
Governor,  and  then  Secretary  of  Agriculture  under 


FIAT    LUX  259 


President  Ben  Harrison.  Then  there  is  William  D. 
Hoard,  editor,  Governor  and  evangelist-extraordinary 
in  the  world-wide  realm  of  modern  dairying.  Dr. 
Babcock,  the  great  agricultural  chemist  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin,  who  gave  millions  of  dollars  to 
the  world  when  he  discovered  the  test  for  butterfat, 
is  a  late  and  welcome  addition  to  this  outer  corri- 
dor collection.  His  work  has  added  immeasurably 
to  the  prestige  of  applied  science  throughout  the 
farming  world. 

"Tama  Jim"  Wilson  of  Iowa  needs  no  special 
introduction  at  our  hands.  The  three-time  Secre- 
tary is  a  native  of  Ayrshire,  Scotland,  and  has  had 
exceptional  opportunities  of  promoting  scientific 
agriculture,  which  he  has  utilized  to  the  fullest 
possible  extent.  Near  him  you  will  find  the  Hon. 
John  Dryden,  late  Minister  of  Agriculture  of  On- 
tario, a  man  who  was  much  more  than  an  efficient 
public  official  in  a  responsible  position.  He  was 
one  of  the  best  farmers  in  a  district  famous  for  its 
tillage,  its  Shorthorns,  Glydes  and  Shropshires — 
that  same  part  of  Canada  that  gave  the  Millers 
and  the  Davidsons  to  North  America.  His  picture 
may  well  be  here  preserved,  and  space  awaits  the 
portraits  of  his  countrymen,  James  I.  Davidson  and 
rare  old  "Willie"   Miller.    These  and  other  Gana- 


260  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


dians  played  conspicuous  roles  during  the  revolution 
in  western  cattle-breeding,  discussed  in  the  pages 
devoted  to  the  work  of  Senator  Harris. 

Dean  Gurtiss  of  Ames  has  judged  the  draft 
horses  in  harness  at  the  International  for  so  many 
years,  and  with  such  universal  satisfaction  to  the 
talent,  that  nobody  knows  what  would  happen  in 
that  sensational  annual  competition  if  he  were  to  be 
suddenly  translated  to  some  other  sphere.  Gurtiss 
is  one  of  the  real  ornaments  of  his  profession.  His 
knowledge  of  the  breeds  is  broad;  his  acquaintance 
among  breeders,  feeders  and  dairymen  nation-wide, 
and  his  poise  has  carried  him  safely  through  many 
a  hot  contention. 

Poor  patient  plodding  Graig!  None  was  ever 
better  at  planning  scientific  experimentation  with  live 
stock.  At  Madison,  at  Ames  and  in  Texas  he  left 
his  impress  upon  important  animal  husbandry  work, 
and  died,  a  great  but  uncomplaining  suiferer,  in  the 
harness.  As  a  member  of  the  United  States  Tariff 
Board  in  1909  I  had  esteemed  myself  specially  for- 
tunate in  engaging  Graig  to  conduct  the  inquiry 
into  production -cost  of  wool  upon  the  western 
ranges;  but  troubles  at  that  time  were  fast  engulf- 
ing him  in  their  toils,  and  before  the  inquiry  could 
be    started    he   was  stricken    cruelly,  and   gathered 


FIAT    LUX  261 


to  his  fathers.  If  there  was  ever  a  self-sacrificing 
moral  hero  it  was  this  same  brave,  frail,  crippled 
John  A.  Graig. 

Dean  Davenport,  of  the  University  of  Illinois, 
the  little  giant  of  one  of  the  hardest-fought  battles 
in  the  history  of  western  agricultural  college  work, 
will  ever  be  remembered  as  the  man  who  has  made 
the  Illinois  institution,  over  which  he  still  presides, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  all  existing  schools  of  its 
class.  How  he  did  it  none  but  himself  will  ever  really 
know.  Surrounded  by  such  able,  conscientious  co- 
workers as  MuMFORD,  Coffey,  and  a  faculty  of  alto- 
gether exceptional  strength,  he  lives  to  enjoy  his 
richly -merited  success  as  he  plans  still  greater 
things  for  Illinois. 

The  portraits  of  Dean  Henry,  Jere  Rusk,  John 
Dryden  and  James  Wilson  look  down  upon  me  as 
I  pass  and  seem  to  say,  "There  is  one  of  our 
company  here  we  would  not  wish  you  to  ignore. 
We  knew  him  well,  and  in  the  old  days  labored  often 
side  by  side.  Forget  not  the  days  of  thy  youth." 
My  father!  Yes,  it  is  true  he  is  also  here.  To  be 
sure  the  artist  has  not  done  as  well  with  this  por- 
trait as  he  did  in  the  case  of  the  one  that  hangs  in 
my  own  private  office;  but  it  serves.  But  what  am 
I  to  say  and  where  am  I  to  begin?     I  can  only  yield 


262  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


myself  to  the  occult  influences  of  the  hour  and 
place,  sink  into  that  * 'comfy"  corner  chair,  and 
drift  without  compass  or  rudder  into  the  circling 
seas  of  introspection.  Spirits  of  a  day  lang  syne 
are  surely  hovering  round  about.  Mystic  voices  from 
across  wide  waters  seem  to  speak.  The  past  rises 
even  as  a  dream,  from  which  I  awake  in  boy-land. 


XXXI 
THE  GALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST 

It  was  in  the  year  1868  that  James  Harvey 
Sanders  —  then  engaged  in  banking  and  railway 
construction  work  designed  to  give  adequate  trans- 
portation facilities  to  a  comparatively  isolated  com- 
munity in  Keokuk  county  in  the  state  of  Iowa — 
found  himself  in  a  position  to  indulge  his  inherited 
fondness  for  farming  and  well-bred  domestic  animals. 
Born  in  central  Ohio  from  Virginia  parentage,  he 
had  not  forgotten  the  impress  made  in  the  Sciota 
Valley  and  in  the  ''Darby  Plains"  country  in  the 
Buckeye  State  by  the  first  stallions  of  heavy  draft 
brought  into  those  regions  from  the  ancient  French 
province  of  Normandy.  The  first  cross  of  these  big 
horses  upon  the  native  mares  had  been  so  success- 
ful in  increasing  the  size  and  selling  value  of  the 
colts  produced,  as  compared  with  the  ordinary  types 
prevalent  in  those  early  days,  that  he  determined 
to  introduce  the  blood  into  that  part  of  the  newer 
west  in  which  he  had  taken  up  his  residence. 

At  that  date  there  were  but  few  horses  of  pure 
French  origin  available.  Old  Louis  Napoleon  had 
been  brought  out  from  Ohio  into  Illinois,  and  had 
already  laid  the  foundation  for  the  subsequent  pop- 
ularity   of   the    so-called    "Norman"   horse    in    the 


264  AT    T?IE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


middle  west.  Revisiting  the  old  home  in  quest  of 
a  stallion  carrying  as  much  of  the  desired  blood  as 
was  obtainable,  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  acquire 
by  purchase  a  seven-eighths-bred  horse  called  Victor 
Hugo,  sired  by  the  famous  old-time  imported  stallion 
Count  Robert,  known  locally  in  central  Ohio  as  "the 
Baker  Horse,"  and  shipped  him  out  to  Iowa.  The 
nearest  railway  station  was  some  30  miles  distant, 
but  the  big,  good-tempered  iron-gray  was  as  active 
as  a  cat,  in  fact,  a  prodigious  "walker,"  and,  led  by 
the  halter  along  the  country  roads,  there  was  no 
difficulty  experienced  in  landing  him  safely  at  the 
little  village  county  seat  of  Sigourney.  I  was  a  lad 
of  less  than  10  at  the  time,  but  I  have  a  distinct 
recollection  of  the  sensation  Victor  Hugo  made 
upon  his  arrival  in  the  midst  of  a  farming  com- 
munity where  a  1,600-pound  drafter  was  an  absolute 
revelation.  Following  the  first  introduction  of 
French  horses  into  Iowa  by  A.  W.  Gook  of  Charles 
City  a  few  years  previous,  this  was,  so  far  as  I  can 
ascertain,  the  second  "importation"  of  this  type  into 
the  state.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  Percheron 
breeders  to  add  that  this  pioneer  horse  was  out  of 
a  mare  by  "Old  Bill,"  also  called  the  "Valley  Horse," 
and  his  grandam  was  a  mare  by  old  Louis  Napoleon. 
Victor  Hugo  at  once  became  the  pet  and  pride, 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         265 


not  only  of  the  family,  but  of  the  entire  country- 
side. I  have  since  that  time  had  the  pleasure  of 
riding  and  driving  many  a  good  horse.  I  have  ex- 
perienced since  then  divers  and  sundry  "thrills" 
incident  to  connection  with  various  events  of  one 
kind  or  another;  but  if  I  were  to  live  to  be  a  hun- 
dred years  old  I  do  not  imagine  that  I  could  ever 
experience  again  anything  approaching  the  sense  of 
supreme  and  of  course  exaggerated  importance  I 
used  to  feel  when  as  a  small  boy  I  was  set  astride 
the  broad  bare  back  of  this  great  horse,  the  reins 
of  his  fine  bridle — bedecked  at  brow-band  with  red 
rosettes — placed  in  my  hands,  and  started  around 
the  village  streets  or  public  highways.  He  was  as 
gentle  as  a  dog,  and  only  once,  on  the  occasion  of 
a  county  fair,  was  I  ever  unhorsed  as  a  result  of 
my  fondness  for  poor  old  Victor  Hugo.  I  say  "poor," 
because  after  several  successful  years,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  was  patronized  to  the  limit  by  the 
farmers  of  Keokuk  and  adjoining  counties,  he  bled 
to  death  as  a  result  of  the  rupture  of  a  blood 
vessel  in  his  head  or  nostril.  I  know  I  wept  for 
days  and  would  not  be  comforted. 

Then  came  the  great  imported  horse  Dieppe, 
and  also  Diligence,  both  bought  from  the  Dillons 
of  Bloomington,  the  former  at  $3,000  and  the  latter 


266  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 

at  $2,500;  the  former  probably  one  of  the  greatest 
sires  of  draft  colts  that  ever  crossed  the  Atlantic. 
He  had  no  imported  mares,  but  he  revolutionized 
the  farm  horse  stock  of  that  part  of  Iowa  in  the 
early  seventies,  and  was  the  direct  cause  of  the 
subsequent  embarkation  into  the  draft-horse  breed- 
ing and  importing  trade  on  a  liberal  scale  by  the 
Messrs.  Singmaster. 

Meantime,  James  H.  Sanders  had  noted  the  vast 
extension  of  good  breeding  that  began  sweeping 
over  the  Mississippi  Valley  states  during  the  years 
following  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  and  looked 
about  for  some  means  of  keeping  himself  informed 
as  to  what  was  going  on  in  that  important  branch 
of  western  agricultural  development.  At  the  State 
Fair  he  saw  a  few  Shorthorns  and  certain  other 
types  of  well-bred  cattle,  horses,  sheep  and  swine. 
Still  all  this  was  merely  incidental.  He  had  been 
successful  in  business,  and  the  major  part  of  his 
time  was  still  employed  in  buying  right-of-way 
and  materials  for  a  railway  to  connect  Cedar  Rapids 
and  Ottumwa.  He  had  an  interest  in  the  local 
printing  office,  and  as  a  result  of  his  reading  of 
Darwin's,  Huxley's,  Tyndall's,  Spencer's  and  other 
scientific  works  determined  to  found  and  edit  with  his 
own  hand  a  periodical  to  be  devoted  to  the  interest 


THE    CALL    OF    A    DISTANT    PAST  267 


of  blood-stock  breeding.  The  little  monthly  "West- 
ern Stock  Journal"  thus  came  into  being,  printed 
upon  a  hand-power  press,  and  each  individual  copy 
stitched  with  an  ordinary  thread  and  needle  by  the 
members  of  his  own  household,  of  which  I  was  a 
junior  with  my  first  pair  of  long  trousers.  I  couldn't 
stitch  as  many  copies  in  an  hour  as  my  seniors,  but 
I  loved  the  little  paper,  and  with  my  awkward  fin- 
gers did  what  I  could  to  help  get  the  precious  little 
messenger  ready  for  distribution.  It  does  not  look 
particularly  imposing  as  I  gaze  upon  those  initial 
issues  now  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  forty  years, 
but  it  "took"  instantaneously  in  Iowa  and  neighbor- 
ing states,  because  it  satisfied  a  genuine  demand  for 
reading  matter  of  that  description.  It  was  the  first 
purely  live-stock  periodical  ever  issued  in  the  world, 
and  never  was  enterprise  launched  from  more  dis- 
interested or  more  essentially  altruistic  motives. 

The  first  purebred  bull  introduced  into  Keokuk 
county  agriculture  was  a  Shorthorn  bought  by  my 
father  from  W.  J.  Neeley,  an  old-time  breeder  at 
Ottawa,  111.,  for  account  of  T.  A.  Morgan.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  first  impression  made  by  this 
straight-lined,  level-quartered  red  yearling  as  I  first 
saw  him  being  led  from  the  unloading  chute  down 
the   roadway   leading   out   to   Mr.    Morgan's   place. 


263  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


When  the  American  Indians  first  saw  a  white  man 
their  wonder  must  have  been  somewhat  similar  to 
my  own  at  seeing  my  first  beast  of  a  highly  improved 
character  belonging  to  the  bovine  species.  Nothing 
like  this  had  ever  before  walked  on  earth — in  my 
judgment.  The  bull  was  as  great  a  creation  of  his 
kind  as  was  Victor  Hugo,  but  he  did  not  belong  to 
us — much  to  my  disappointment — and  I  went  back 
to  our  own  cowyard  to  milk  my  quota  of  the  native 
"fill-pails"  assembled  every  evening,  wondering  how 
such  beautiful  animals  as  this  proud  young  Short- 
horn ever  happened.  I  think  now  that  this  was 
clearly  the  beginning  of  an  admiration  for  fine  cattle 
that  in  after  years  led  me  into  a  lot  of  hard  work, 
in  fact,  into  a  vocation. 

Having  now  started  his  community  squarely 
upon  the  road  to  draft  horse  and  cattle  improve- 
ment, and  having  through  the  "Western  Stock 
Journal"  called  the  entire  west  to  arms  in  the  cause 
of  better  breeding,  my  father  went  after  the  lanky, 
long-snouted  swine  of  that  period.  This  was  in  the 
days  when  David  M.  Magie  was  building  so  wisely 
at  Oxford,  O.,  the  foundations  of  the  Poland- 
China  breed.  A.  G.  Moore,  his  great  antagonist  of 
Canton,  III,  was  also  producing  black-and-white 
spotted  hogs  that  were  having  a  wide  vogue  among 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         269 


the  farmers  of  Illinois  and  Iowa.  Father,  with  his 
natural  leaning  towards  Buckeye  State  productions, 
sent  to  headquarters  for  a  good  boar,  and  Magie 
shipped  out  a  hog  that  I  can  still  see  as  plainly  as 
though  it  were  but  yesterday  he  was  uncrated — 
long,  deep,  heavy-boned,  great  *'lop"  ears  and  some 
sandy  spots  along  with  the  black-and-white.  The 
black  predomijiated,  but  the  white  spots  were  far 
more  extensive  than  would  have  been  accepted  in 
Poland-China  circles  a  few  years  later.  This  boar 
proved  a  good  producer,  and  all  of  the  half-blood 
pigs  were  quickly  bought  up  by  the  neighboring 
farmers  for  breeding  purposes.  Later  on  a  pair  of 
Essex  were  bought,  but  they  lacked  the  size  de- 
manded by  the  feeders  of  that  district,  and  the 
blood  never  became  popular.  An  English  type  of 
whites,  known  then,  and  yet  where  bred,  as 
Cheshires,  next  engaged  attention,  and  with  these 
was  scored  one  of  the  most  marked  successes  of 
that  period.  They  had  finish,  weight  and  quality, 
and  the  fine  fat  litters  captivated  everybody  on 
sight.  These  "chubby"  pink-skinned  pigs  were  the 
one  special  joy  of  my  own  youthful  heart.  The  truth 
is  I  have  never  seen  anything  quite  so  attractive 
since.  What  a  great  thing  indeed  it  is  to  be  a  live, 
healthy  boy  with  all  the  world  yet  a  terra  incognito, 


270  AT   THE    SIGN    OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


with  new  marvels  revealing  themselves  at  every  bend 
in  the  river!  And  how  my  brother  and  I  pampered 
the  chosen  specimens  selected  for  the  county  fair ! 
In  clean  pens,  away  from  the  midsummer  heat,  they 
were  stuffed  several  times  a  day  almost  to  the 
bursting  point  with  cooked  corn-meal  "mush,"  boiled 
potatoes  and  milk,  and,  to  take  the  place  of  grazing, 
the  choicest  weeds  that  pigs'  palates  ever  knew 
were  gathered  in  the  garden  and  supplied  in  great 
profusion  for  their  delectation.  Grow  ?  Fatten  ? 
Such  porcine  prodigies  had  surely  not  been  seen 
before  in  that  community  !  And  one  great  day,  one 
summer  when  our  pig  crop  was  uncommonly  excel- 
lent, it  was  decided  to  show  at  the  State  Fair  at 
Cedar  Rapids,  and  "we  boys"  were  to  be  taken 
along !  Oh  joy !  Oh  rapture  unconfined  !  For  weeks 
we  slept  but  little,  and  our  waking  dreams  were  all 
of  the  grand  experience  ahead.  I  think  I  wore  out 
two  or  three  of  the  premium  lists  that  August 
devouring  them  and  all  their  contents  daily.  I  knew 
the  list  of  officers  and  directors  "by  heart."  I  knew 
who  was  to  be  grand  marshal,  although  I  did  not 
know  exactly  what  duties  that  functionary  had  to 
discharge.  Had  I  known  at  the  time  that  he  was 
to  be  a  kingly  figure  on  a  noble  charger  wearing  a 
crimson  sash,  I  should  have   died  I  fear   of   sheer 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         271 


excitement.  I  knew  all  the  rules  and  regulations, 
and  the  money  prizes  in  sight  seemed  to  me  enor- 
mous. You  can  rest  assured,  dear  reader,  that 
those  pigs  did  not  suffer  for  lack  of  food  during 
those  wonderful  weeks  of  preparation.  Scrubbed? 
Well,  I  should  be  almost  ashamed  to  tell  you  how 
many  times  a  week  we  climbed  into  those  pens 
armed  with  brushes  and  hot  "suds"!  We  ran  a 
regular  "beauty  parlor"  for  our  coming  champions. 
And  at  last — it  seemed  to  us  the  day  would  never 
come — the  building  of  the  shipping  crates  began, 
and  then  we  knew  that  we  were  really  going  soon. 
Our  county  was  still  without  a  railroad.  Progress 
from  the  south  was  slow,  and  delays  and  disappoint- 
ments interminable  supervened  to  impede  the  com- 
pletion of  the  line  in  which  the  paternal  fortune 
had  been  invested.  So  when  this  Cedar  Rapids 
expedition  was  arranged  it  called  for  a  thirty-mile 
haul  to  the  town  of  Washington  on  the  Rock 
Island's  Kansas  City  line.  Old  Dieppe,  the  imported 
"Norman,"  was  to  go.  Also  two  or  three  alleged 
trotters  that  had  a  trainer  and  sulkies  and  harnesses 
and  boots  and  blankets  and  bandages  galore,  and 
could  go  just  fast  enough  to  lose  every  race  in 
which  they  were  ever  started.  We  all  knew  that 
this  outfit  was  unprofitable;  but  father  loved  a  good 


272  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


road  team  and  harness  racing,  and  indulged  his 
fondness  for  the  sport  at  considerable  cost.  He 
was  entirely  serious  and  altogether  practical  in  his 
efforts  with  the  drafters,  the  Shorthorns  and  the 
pigs,  but  warned  everybody  against  the  allurements 
of  the  turf.  Often  I  have  heard  him  say,  "If  you 
will  go  and  buy  a  cow  that  has  formed  the  habit 
of  sucking  herself,  you  will  have  a  piece  of  property 
of  about  the  same  value  as  one  of  these  trotters." 
The  great  day  dawned  at  last.  The  pigs  had 
all  been  crated  the  evening  before,  and  at  sunrise 
the  caravan  started  —  one  great  wagon  load  of 
swine,  another  filled  with  feed,  camp  equipment  and 
luggage  of  various  kinds.  The  trotters  drew  the 
high-wheeled  ''sulkies"  and  Dieppe  was  led.  It  was 
a  merry  party  that  took  the  road  that  morning,  I 
assure  you,  and  the  evening  found  us  putting  up 
for  the  night  at  a  wayside  tavern  a  few  miles  from 
the  town  of  Washington.  Early  the  next  morning 
we  drove  to  the  railway  depot,  and  loaded  the 
whole  outfit  into  a  Rock  Island  box  car.  I  have 
since  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  our  continent  many 
times,  but  never  was  there  such  a  great  adventure 
as  this  railway  journey  of  the  backwoods  country 
boy  of  eleven  to  the  great  city  of  Cedar  Rapids  and 
the  Iowa  State  Fair  of  18^1.     Father  took  a  room 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         273 


downtown  at  a  "swell"  hotel,  and  gave  me  my 
choice  of  making  headquarters  there  with  him  or 
stopping  with  "the  boys"  out  on  the  fair  grounds. 
I  of  course  elected  to  stay  with  "the  big  show." 
An  extra  stall  was  rented  in  the  horse  barns, 
and  an  extra  pen  in  the  swine  department.  These 
were  well  bedded  down  with  nice  clean  straw,  and 
a  bountiful  stock  of  blankets  served  to  convert 
them  straightway  into  sleeping  quarters  fit  for 
kings.  I  stayed  with  those  pet  pigs.  A  primitive 
cooking  outfit  had  been  taken,  and  never  were 
there  such  banquets  as  were  served  that  week.  At 
night  we  would  sit  around  the  camp  fire  and  specu- 
late on  the  morrow's  doings.  It  was  somewhat  dis- 
concerting, to  be  sure,  to  find  that  other  folks  had 
good  pigs  also.  In  fact,  we  began  to  worry  mightily 
about  what  would  happen  when  we  had  to  meet  in 
the  sweepstakes  rings  certain  perfect  Poland-Chinas 
that  looked  as  if  they  too  had  not  lacked  prepara- 
tion. But  we  scrubbed  our  entries  until  they  were 
simply  immaculate,  curled  their  hair  and  set  them 
before  the  judges  in  such  perfect  condition  that 
most  of  the  class  prizes  and  a  few  championships 
finally  came  our  way,  greatly  to  our  relief  and  infi- 
nite satisfaction.  The  trotters,  needless  to  add,  did 
not  give  such  a  good  account  of  themselves. 


274  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Elliott  &  Kent  of  Des  Moines  had  a  herd  of 
Bates  and  BATES-topped  Shorthorns  on  exhibition, 
all  red  as  cherries  and  nicely  fitted,  and  I  found 
myself  wandering  around  to  their  stalls  every  day 
absolutely  lost  in  admiration.  P.  R.  McMillan  & 
Son  of  Washington  were  showing  Poland-Chinas. 
The  son  was  a  lad  named  Horace,  destined  in  his 
mature  years  to  lead  the  Percheron  horsemen  of 
the  United  States  out  of  the  mazes  of  a  Stud 
Book  registration  tangle  such  as  no  other  important 
breed  ever  had  to  face  in  the  history  of  American 
stock  breeding.  They  had  been  as  successful  with 
their  pigs  as  we  had  been  with  ours.  The  Illinois 
State  Fair  was  to  be  held  on  the  following  week  at 
Peoria,  and  the  feelings  of  both  Horace  and  myself 
can  better  be  imagined  than  described  when  it  was 
announced  that  both  herds  were  to  be  shipped  and 
shown  there,  and  we  were  to  be  allowed  to  go! 
Father  and  McMillan  pere  went  on  ahead  to  arrange 
the  entries  and  the  necessary  accommodations,  and 
we  were  to  go  by  freight  with  the  live  stock.  No 
trip  around  the  world  ever  yielded  any  human  beings 
greater  excitements  than  did  this  expedition  to  these 
two  Iowa  youngsters.  I  was  not  just  sure  that  the 
great  steel  bridge  over  the  Mississippi  at  Burlington 
was   going   to   stand   up   under   the    strain   of   our 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         276 


heavily-laden  cars,  but  it  did,  and  presently  we 
were  in  Peoria.  All  was  bustle  and  confusion. 
Adam  Rankin  of  Monmouth  was  unloading  a  show 
herd  of  Berkshires  when  we  arrived  at  the  fair 
ground  siding,  and  a  lot  of  his  pigs  were  uncrated 
on  the  platform  to  be  driven  across  to  the  swine 
department  by  way  of  exercise.  They  got  it.  So 
did  our  entire  party.  Overjoyed,  I  suppose,  at  their 
unexpected  liberty,  with  heads  and  tails  up,  they 
broke  away  from  all  control,  and  steeple-chased  all 
over  the  fair  grounds  with  our  whole  company  in 
hot  pursuit.  That  was  my  first  real  demonstration 
of  Berkshire  activity,  cunning  and  real  agility. 
Needless  to  say  it  took  the  ringleaders  in  this 
escapade  three  or  four  days  to  recover  from  their 
"spree,"  much  to  their  owner's  disgust. 

Such  was  my  father's  entrance  into  showyard 
campaigning.  Such  was  my  own  first  taste  of  life 
in  the  great  world  that  had  been  discovered  outside 
of  Keokuk  county.  Several  happy  and  prosperous 
years  followed,  so  far  as  the  stock-keeping  ventures 
were  concerned;  but  the  financial  panic  of  '75 
wrecked  the  St.  Louis  and  Cedar  Rapids  railway 
corporation,  and  the  savings  of  twenty  years  went 
by  the  board.  Meantime,  George  W.  Rust  and  John 
P.  Reynolds    of    Chicago,    noting    the    possibilities 


276  AT   THE   SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


opened  up  by  the  field  partially  covered  by  the 
"Western  Stock  Journal,"  had  established  a  monthly 
magazine  called  "The  National  Live  Stock  Journal," 
and  now  made  overtures  looking  toward  a  consoli- 
dation of  the  two  publications.  The  deal  was  con- 
summated, and  James  H.  Sanders  agreed  to  become 
an  associate  editor  of  the  Chicago  periodical.  At 
first  he  prepared  his  copy  at  home  and  mailed  it  in 
to  the  head  office.  He  early  pressed  me  into  such 
altogether  minor  and  clerical  service  as  I  was  able 
to  render  in  the  matter  of  assisting  with  the  collec- 
tion of  the  news  of  the  business  and  the  handling 
of  his  proofs. 

Those  were  indeed  trying  days  for  one  who  had 
until  now  been  uniformly  successful  in  other  fields; 
but  the  big  horses  earned  enough  to  provide  a  re- 
spectable support  for  a  considerable  family.  A  famous 
Clydesdale  show  horse,  Donald  Dinnie,  had  been 
bought  from  George  Murray  of  Racine  for  $5,000, 
and  was  added  to  the  Percheron  stud,  and  a  liberal 
patronage  was  accorded.  Those  were  the  days  of 
$20,  $25  and  $30  fees,  and  the  aggregate  bookings 
of  all  the  stallions  totaled  a  very  tidy  sum.  But 
hard  times  now  pressed  heavily.  Debts  arising  from 
the  railway  crash  hung  like  a  nightmare  with  no 
relief  from  their   crushing  weight  in  sight.     George 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         277 


Wilkes,,  the  brilliant  editor  and  proprietor  of  the 
great  New  York  sporting  weekly  of  that  era,  had 
noticed  father's  editorial  work,  and  engaged  him  to 
attend  and  report  the  Grand  Circuit  races,  begin- 
ning at  Cleveland  and  running  for  some  weeks  down 
through  Buffalo,  Rochester,  Utica  and  other  eastern 
cities.  Those  v/ere  the  halcyon  days  of  harness- 
horse  racing  in  America.  Fortunes  were  up  in 
purses,  the  attendance  was  enormous,  the  sport 
royal,  and  an  excitement  and  enthusiasm  which  can 
now  scarce  be  realized  followed  the  great  contests 
of  speed  and  endurance  as  the  campaign  progressed 
to  its  apotheosis.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  the 
accounts  of  these  memorable  trotting  meetings  pub- 
lished from  week  to  week  as  Doble  and  Mace  and 
Marvin  and  other  celebrated  drivers  fought  their 
various  battles,  have  not  to  this  day  been  sur- 
passed. As  examples  of  descriptive  writing,  they 
were  so  generally  appreciated  that  Mr.  Wilkes  im- 
mediately offered  the  western  writer  the  turf 
editorship  of  the  "Spirit  of  the  Times."  The  prop- 
osition was  accepted,  the  old  home  in  Iowa  given 
up,  the  live  stock  sold,  and  removal  to  New  York 
followed.  While  the  salary  was  a  liberal  one,  and  the 
work  congenial  enough,  the  idea  of  selling  all  his 
time  to  someone  else  did  not  appeal  specially  to  a 


278  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


man  who  had  been  his  own  master  throughout  many 
successful  years,  so  that  after  the  lapse  of  some 
twelve  months,  negotiations  were  undertaken  which 
resulted  in  his  acquiring  an  interest  in  the  "National 
Live  Stock  Journal,"  and  assuming  at  the  same  time 
its  managing  editorship. 

Thus  was  James  H.  Sanders  embarked  upon  the 
work  which  ever  after  claimed  his  undivided  atten- 
tion. It  was  a  hard  struggle  at  first.  The  income 
failed  to  meet  the  Chicago  cost  of  living,  and  at  1 6 
years  of  age  a  desk  was  set  aside  for  me,  in  order 
that  I  might  begin  an  apprenticeship  and  incident- 
ally bring  home  $10  every  Saturday  night.  The 
most  active  breeding  interests  at  that  date,  18Z6, 
were  those  which  centered  in  Shorthorn  cattle  and 
trotting-bred  horses.  Father  had  the  latter  well  in 
hand,  and  set  me  the  task  of  "checking"  the  proofs 
of  the  many  herd  and  sale  catalogues  being  printed 
at  the  "Journal"  ofRce  for  the  leading  Shorthorn 
breeders  of  the  west.  This  was  not  only  a  "demi- 
nition  grind,"  on  account  of  its  particularly  tedious 
character,  but  called  for  most  scrupulous  and  pains- 
taking care,  in  order  to  avoid  errors  in  names  or 
registration  numbers.  Those  were  the  days  of 
"fashionable"  and  "unfashionable"  pedigrees.  It  made 
all  the  difference  in  the  world,  for  example,  in  the 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         279 


selling  value  of  an  animal  if  one  of  the  "crosses'* 
in  the  pedigree  read  "Duke  of  Airdrie  2743"  or 
"Duke  of  Airdrie  (12750)."  The  one  was  taboo, 
the  other  a  name  to  be  paraded  with  pride.  Each 
and  every  name  and  number  in  the  body  of  the 
pedigrees  as  well  as  in  all  the  footnotes  had  to  be 
carefully  verified  by  reference  to  the  English  or 
American  Herd  Books  before  we  put  the  "forms" 
to  press.  The  whole  Shorthorn  world  had  gone 
stark  mad  on  the  subject  of  pedigrees  and  fash- 
ion. No  one  who  had  any  special  pride  in  his 
herd  thought  his  equipment  complete  until  he  had 
an  elaborately  worked -out  catalogue  compiled  and 
printed  at  the  "National  Live  Stock  Journal"  office. 
George  Rust  was  their  biographer  and  historian. 
At  first  I  could  not,  of  course,  be  trusted  to  pre- 
pare any  "copy"  for  these  important  publications. 
I  could  read  proofs  and  "check"  numbers,  though, 
until  I  was  blue  in  the  face.  And  so  after  many 
weary  months  I  perforce  acquired  a  familiarity  with 
the  pedigree  records  and  the  breeding  of  the  differ- 
ent herds  that  was  subsequently  to  be  turned  to 
some  account.  This  work  was  only  for  the  vaca- 
tion months,  however.  During  the  winter  I  went  to 
school:  first  in  Chicago,  then — for  one  year  only — 
at   Cornell    University,    and   later  taking   a   LL.B. 


280  AT   THE   SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


degree  at  the  Union  College  of  Law  in  the  class  of 
1881,  of  which  our  present  distinguished  Chicago 
congressman,  Hon.  James  R.  Mann,  was  a  member. 
I  was  to  be  a  lawyer  or  a  newspaper  man — one  or 
the  other;  I  did  not  know  which.  I  preferred  the 
attractions  of  the  law  at  that  time,  and  pursued 
its  study  accordingly;  but  fate  ordered  my  course 
otherwise.  All  through  my  law  course  I  worked 
"on  the  side"  on  the  Shorthorn  catalogues,  and  as 
an  assistant  to  the  editor  of  the  ''Journal,"  and  one 
day  something  happened. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  office  to  publish  in 
the  paper  an  editorial  review  of  each  catalogue 
prepared.  These  were,  of  course,  written  by  the 
editors;  but  it  so  happened  that  when  one  which 
I  had  just  finished  compiling  for  the  late  Hon. 
William  M.  Smith  of  Lexington,  111.,  was  due  to  be 
reviewed,  no  editor  was  on  hand  to  do  the  work. 
The  paper  was  about  to  go  to  press,  and  what  was 
to  be  done  about  it?  The  business  manager  came 
to  me  and  asked  if  I  thought  I  could  do  it.  I  was 
naturally  gratified,  as  well  as  very  much  surprised, 
that  anyone  should  think  me  qualified  to  discuss 
such  delicate  questions  as  those  touching  the  breed- 
ing of  the  Shorthorns  of  that  period.  I  would  try. 
The  manager,  Stephen  G.  Brabrook,  knew  nothing 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         281 


whatever  himself  about  such  things,  but  he  had  a 
very  keen  realization  of  the  necessity  of  having  the 
work  bomb-proof.  The  "Journal"  was  the  great 
authority  by  this  time,  and  its  editorial  utterances 
must  be  carefully  weighed  before  being  expressed. 
I  am  quite  sure  that  he  at  first  looked  upon  the 
proposal  that  I  tackle  this  job  as  more  or  less  of  a 
joke.  And  yet  he  evidently  thought  it  possible  that 
in  a  pinch  I  might  get  out  something  that  it  would 
do  to  print.  So  a  few  days  later  I  handed  in  my 
maiden  effort.  I  was  sure  enough  of  my  facts.  I 
had  not  slaved  for  several  years  over  those  inter- 
minable rows  of  herd  books  all  for  nothing.  I  had 
pedigrees  drilled  into  my  head  so  mercilessly  that 
to  this  day,  after  nearly  forty  years,  the  numbers 
of  all  the  more  important  breeding  bulls  from  the 
time  of  Hubback  down  to  14th  Duke  of  Thorne- 
dale  come  into  my  mind  instantly  at  the  mere 
mention  of  the  animal's  name;  and  in  most  instances 
I  could  fill  in  if  required,  without  consulting  the 
books,  both  the  English  and  American  numbers  in 
cases  where  bulls  were  recorded  on  both  sides  the 
water.  This  is  mentioned,  not  as  anything  specially 
remarkable,  but  merely  by  way  of  emphasizing  the 
thoroughness  of  the  "grinding"  process  through 
which  I  passed  in  this  work  from  1876  to  1880. 


282  AT   THE    SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


"The  review  reads  all  well  enough,"  said  Mr. 
Brabrook,  "but  are  you  sure  you  have  not  made 
any  'breaks'?"  I  had  courage  enough  to  assure  him 
that  I  believed  it  was  0.  K.,  and  so  with  some  little 
trepidation  the  business  manager  in  the  absence  of 
the  editors  put  the  stuff  in  type,  and  slipped  it  into 
the  last  form  going  to  press.  As  for  myself,  I  was 
frightened  half  out  of  my  wits.  There  would  be 
the  devil  to  pay,  sure  enough,  if  I  had  "fallen  down." 
The  paper  appeared,  and  a  few  days  later  in  walked 
"Uncle  Billy"  Smith  himself.  My  desk  was  in  the 
business  office,  and  when  the  dear  old  man  took  a 
chair  and  said,  with  mock  severity,  "Brabrook,  who 
wrote  that  matter  about  my  cattle?"  I  knew  the 
end  had  come.  I  felt  myself  growing  smaller  and 
smaller  every  moment,  and  would  have  been  truly 
thankful  if  the  floor  had  mercifully  opened  and  let 
me  through  where  no  one  could  witness  my  impend- 
ing humiliation  and  Brabrook's  wrath.  The  latter 
was  quite  as  sure  as  I  myself  that  mortal  offense 
had  been  committed  through  his  and  my  own  stu- 
pidity, and  a  good  customer's  further  business  lost 
forever.  So  he  turned  red  and  then  white,  and 
finally  stammered,  in  tones  absolutely  apologetic  in 
their  quality:  "Well,  I  believe  that  in  the  absence 
of  our  regular  editors  it  was  written  by  one  of  the 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         283 


young  men  here  in  the  office."  And  then  we  both 
waited  for  the  bolt  to  strike.  It  came  swiftly 
enough,  and  when  it  was  delivered  one  man's 
career  in  this  world  was  settled. 

William  M.  Smith  was  one  of  the  big  men  of 
his  day  in  the  state  of  Illinois,  prominent  in  politi- 
cal and  financial  circles,  an  inveterate  joker  and 
retailer  of  good  stories,  beloved  by  everybody.  His 
laugh  was  worth  going  blocks  to  hear,  so  hearty  and 
so  brimming  with  good  nature.  I  suppose  that  the 
comment  he  made  that  morning  in  the  office  of  the 
"National  Live  Stock  Journal"  in  the  old  Honore 
Block — pulled  down  years  ago  to  make  room  for 
the  beautiful  Marquette  Building  on  the  corner  of 
Adams  and  Dearborn  Streets — should  perhaps  not 
here  be  put  on  record.  It  meant  nothing  much  at 
the  time  it  was  uttered  to  anybody  but  a  poor  boy, 
wavering  as  to  what  he  should  do  with  himself.  It 
is  of  no  consequence  now  to  anybody,  and  yet  it 
may  serve  to  demonstrate  anew  the  power  of  an 
appreciative  word,  spoken  at  a  psychological  moment. 
It  may  possibly  lead  someone  else  to  turn  on  the 
inexpensive  current  of  a  kindly  encouragement  at 
some  crucial  period  in  some  other  boy's  life.  Such 
situations,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  are  not  infrequent 
in  the   lives  of  most  of  us  as  we  journey   through 


284  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


this  vale  of  smiles  and  tears.  This  is  what  hap- 
pened : 

"Mr.  Brabrook,  who  is  the  young  nnan  who 
did  it?" 

"There  he  is  over  there,  up  to  his  ears  in  the 
Herd  Books." 

"Well,  I  simply  want  to  say  that  this  review  of 
my  catalogue  is  the  best  one  you  have  ever  printed." 

That  was  all.  But  it  was  enough.  When  he 
had  gone  the  ofRce  manager  came  over  to  where 
I  sat,  took  me  by  the  hand,  congratulated  ourselves 
upon  the  wholly  unanticipated  denouement  of  our 
little  incursion  into  the  editorial  field,  went  to  the 
safe,  opened  a  cash  drawer — none  too  well  lined — 
took  out  a  new  ten-dollar  bank  note  and  brought 
it  to  me  as  extra  money  earned.  And,  believe  me, 
any  who  may  have  had  patience  enough  to  follow 
so  personal  a  narrative  thus  far,  that  "X"  looked 
bigger  to  me  that  day  than  any  money  I  have  yet 
seen  in  my  business  experiences  up  to  date.  I  can 
assure  you  that  there  was  nothing  at  all  wonderful 
about  the  article  itself,  but,  nevertheless,  there- 
after all  the  catalogue  reveiws  were  given  me  to  do, 
and  as  each  appeared  in  turn  a  "ten"  was  added  to 
my  little  monthly  wage.  And  that  is  how  one  Ameri- 
can came  to  take  up  and  follow  his  father's  calling. 


THE  CALL  OF  A  DISTANT  PAST         286 


My  old  Latin  school  reader  contained  a  lot  of 
Aesop's  fables,  the  concluding  paragraph  of  each 
narration  beginning  with  the  expression,  "hie  fabula 
docet."  And  so,  with  this  little  leaf  from  the  book 
of  my  own  experience,  the  moral  is  plain:  sooner  or 
later  opportunity  comes  to  us  all — suddenly  perhaps, 
or  quite  by  chance,  and  usually  with  no  time  to 
prepare  one's  self  to  meet  the  test.  And  when  the 
hour  arrives,  then  truly  what  has  up  to  that  mo- 
ment seemed  a  dull  and  aimless  round  of  drudgery 
becomes  the  solid  bridge  upon  which  one  has  the 
chance  to  cross  at  once  to  better  things.  Despise 
not,  therefore,  the  days  of  dry  detail,  the  hours  of 
unconscious  preparation.  The  responsible  heads  will 
surely  be  away  sometime  when  something  happens, 
and  then  you  get  your  day  in  court. 


XXXII 

SOME   STEPS    IN    LIVE-STOCK  JOURNALISM 

The  years  just  prior  to  1880  witnessed  rapid 
progress  in  the  distribution  of  good  blood  throughout 
the  central  states.  The  Herefords  were  winning 
their  way  throughout  the  corn  country,  and  becom- 
ing the  acknowledged  regenerators  of  the  range. 
Shorthorns  had  the  call  with  the  "fanciers,"  and 
were  changing  hands  at  high  prices.  Holstein- 
Friesians,  Jerseys,  Guernseys  and  Brown  Swiss 
cattle  were  entering  the  dairy  districts,  and  draft 
horses  of  the  various  French  and  British  types 
were  becoming  popular.  There  was  activity  in  all 
importing  and  breeding  lines,  and  the  "National 
Live  Stock  Journal"  office  was  a  sort  of  clearing- 
house for  the  reception  and  dissemination  of  news 
and  ideas.  Various  organizations  were  formed  to 
promote  public  interest.  Pedigree  registry  associa- 
tions were  projected,  and  in  almost  every  case  the 
advice  and  co-operation  of  J.  H.  Sanders  was 
invited  and  secured.  He  participated  actively  in 
the  formation  of  various  societies,  and  was  espe- 
cially prominent  in  the  draft-horse  breeding  field. 
When  the  matter  of  establishing  a  stud  book  for 
the  misnamed  "  Norman "  horse  was  under  con- 
sideration, he  was  induced  to  undertake   the   prep- 

286 


SOME    STEPS    IN    LIVE-STOCK   JOURNALISM  287 


aration  of  the  initial  volume.  He  had  not  delved 
very  deep,  however,  in  this  interesting  field  before 
he  learned  that  the  heart  of  French  draft-horse 
production,  aside  from  the  Boulonnais  district,  was 
the  Perche,  and  at  once  pointed  out  the  absurdity 
of  the  word  "Norman"  in  connection  with  the 
French  draft  types,  changing  the  title  of  the  pro- 
posed Stud  book  to  **Percheron-Norman,"  retaining 
the  latter  word  only  as  a  tub  to  the  whale  of 
American  usage.  Subsequently  this  meaningless 
hyphenated  compromise  was  abandoned  entirely,  and 
the  Percheron  Stud  Book  of  America  was  builded 
from  the  crude  foundations  thus  laid  in  the  late 
seventies. 

Mr.  Sanders  was  ever  a  devotee  of  the  turf, 
and  was,  during  this  same  period,  President  of  the 
Chicago  Jockey  and  Trotting  Club,  which  owned 
and  operated  a  well-appointed  course  upon  ground 
just  west  of  the  southern  extension  of  Garfield 
Park,  Chicago.  He  was  also  elected  President  of 
the  Chicago  Fair  Association,  which  held  great 
live-stock  shows  on  this  property  in  1880  and 
1881.  While  all  this  was  going  on  the  business  of 
the  "National  Live  Stock  Journal"  had  been  growing 
rapidly.  Its  patronage  came  very  largely  from  the 
editor's  personal  friends  and  fellow-workers  in  the 


288  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


realm  of  live-stock  improvement,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1881,  as  he  had  been  only  a  minority  stockholder, 
he  decided  to  engage  in  the  publication  of  a  weekly 
to  be  under  his  own  ownership,  devoted  to  these 
same  interests,  and  sever  his  former  connection. 
The  Chicago  Fair  of  that  year  rivaled  in  every 
particular  any  state  fair  ever  held  in  Illinois  up  to 
that  date.  I  had  just  been  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
Chicago,  and  was  preparing  to  go  west  in  the  fall  of 
that  year  to  grow  up  with  Colorado;  but  it  seems 
that  "the  boss"  had  other  plans,  which  were 
shortly  to  be  revealed.  He  resigned  his  position 
as  editor  of  "The  National"  during  the  summer 
months,  and  devoted  all  his  energies  to  the  show 
scheduled  to  be  held  in  September.  It  had  been 
impossible  all  these  years,  after  providing  for  his 
family  and  the  education  of  his  children,  to  save 
money  out  of  his  editorial  salary,  and  now  even 
that  was  voluntarily  relinquished!  But  he  took  the 
chance.  I  spent  my  vacation  months  working  as  a 
clerk  in  the  Fair  Association's  office.  After  the 
show  was  over  I  had  some  $85  of  my  wages  still 
in  my  pocket,  and  it  so  eventuated  that  this 
slender  fund  was  destined  to  help  "start  some- 
thing." After  conferences  with  friends  during  the 
fair,  he  had  decided  to   begin   late   in   the   fall  the 


SOME    STEPS    IN    LIVE-STOCK    JOURNALISM  289 


publication  of  "The  Breeder's  Gazette."  One  lead- 
ing breeder  declared  promptly  that  he  would 
advance  a  few  thousand  dollars  when  the  time 
came,  with  the  understanding  that  the  debt  would 
be  liquidated  by  advertising  space  in  the  new  paper. 
Another  promised  $500  upon  the  same  basis;  in 
fact,  encouragement  was  met  on  every  hand.  The 
general  traveling  agent  of  the  old  monthly,  Henry 
F.  Eastman,  had  also  expressed  in  the  meantime 
a  desire  to  cast  in  his  fortunes  with  the  new  paper. 
A  little  prospectus  was  prepared,  with  a  schedule 
of  proposed  advertising  rates,  and  it  was  planned 
to  put  the  whole  venture  to  a  test  by  sending 
Eastman  to  the  "great  St.  Louis  Fair"  with  this 
formal  announcement,  and  if  he  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing tentative  advertising  contracts  sufficient  to 
serve  as  a  basis  of  credit,  then  cash  would  be 
borrowed  to  buy  the  necessary  type  and  office 
furnishings  to  set  "The  Gazette"  up  in  business. 
It  was  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  that  my 
little  "eighty-five"  came  into  requisition.  It  so 
happened  that  at  this  particular  juncture  there  was 
no  money  in  sight  to  pay  Eastman's  expenses. 
Happily  my  own  little  savings  were  available,  and 
within  a  week  he  was  back  with  several  thousand 
dollars'    worth    of    perfectly    good   contracts.    The 


290  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


venture  was  evidently  to  be  a  success  from  the  very 
first.  There  was  no  longer  doubt  upon  that  point. 
The  founder  then  asked  me  to  "call  off"  my  west- 
ern plans,  and  to  stick  to  the  ship.  I  assented 
upon  one  condition,  to  wit:  that  when  "The 
Gazette "  was  once  well  upon  its  legs  I  should  be 
allowed  to  pull  out  and  go  on  my  way  to  some 
fancied  goal  in  the  realm  of  jurisprudence.  And  so 
the  co-partnership  of  J.  H.  Sanders  &  Go.  was 
formed.  The  actual  cash  required  for  the  first 
lease  in  the  old  Merchant's  Building  on  the  north- 
west corner  of  La  Salle  and  Washington  Streets, 
and  for  the  purchase  of  a  modest  equipment,  was 
advanced  by  the  late  Jerome  I.  Gase  of  Racine, 
who  took  a  chattel  mortgage  on  the  concern  as 
security  for  the  loan.  Mr.  Gase  was  a  millionaire 
manufacturer  of  agricultural  implements,  a  patron 
of  the  turf  and  a  warm  friend  of  my  father's. 
Thus  was  the  infant  *'  Gazette  "  first  financed. 

There  was  no  question  of  father's  ability  to 
command  the  patronage  of  the  stockmen  of  the 
country  generally;  but  could  we  attract  specially 
to  our  support  the  cattle  business  in  competition 
with  the  older  paper?  That  was  the  crux  of  the 
situation,  and  again  those  grinding  years,  to  which 
allusion  has  already  been  made,  began  once  more  to 


SOME    STEPS    IN    LIVE-STOCK    JOURNALISM  291 


bear  a  little  fruit.  There  was  one,  and  only  one, 
way  of  getting  the  attention  of  the  great  powers  in 
western  cattle-breeding  at  that  period.  In  some 
way  **The  Gazette"  office  must  be  made  a  neces- 
sary source  of  information.  Our  equipment  for 
answering  pedigree  questions  and  compiling  herd 
and  sale  catalogues  must  be  made  superior  to  any 
other  available.  But  how  was  this  to  be  accom- 
plished? I  thought  I  knew.  When  Georce  W.  Rust 
was  forced  by  failing  health  to  sell  out  of  the 
"National  Live  Stock  Journal"  and  remove  to 
Colorado,  he  had  taken  with  him  a  rare,  and  to  us 
at  this  juncture,  infinitely  valuable  collection  of 
books,  historic  catalogues,  manuscripts  and  docu- 
ments of  various  kinds  throwing  a  flood  of  light  on 
cattle-breeding  operations  in  the  United  States 
from  the  earliest  periods.  Would  he  sell  the  col- 
lection, and  if  so,  would  it  be  within  our  reach 
with  our  limited  means?  He  was  living  quietly  at 
Boulder.  In  response  to  a  letter  he  expressed  a 
willingness  to  sell,  and  in  twenty-four  hours  I  was 
on  a  train  bound  for  Denver.  This  was  in  Novem- 
ber. The  first  "Gazette"  was  not  to  appear  until 
Dec.  1.  I  had  not  been  among  those  precious 
records  fifteen  minutes  before  I  felt  certain  that 
with   that   mass  of   original   information  at  our  dis- 


292  AT   THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


posal  we  could  make  a  cattle  paper  of  "The 
Breeder's  Gazette"  that  would  compel  recognition 
in  influential  circles.  It  was  a  gold  mine.  The 
price  was  $1,600  cash.  That  staggered  me  a 
little;  but  I  posted  back  to  Chicago  and  recom- 
mended the  purchase,  even  if  we  had  to  curtail 
expenditures  in  other  directions.  The  deal  was 
closed  by  wire,  the  draft  forwarded  and  the 
material  shipped.  Hence  the  announcement  appear- 
ing in  the  very  first  issue  of  "The  Gazette"  to  the 
eifect  that  the  Rust  collection  was  to  be  a  part  of 
our  library,  and  that  cattle  matters  in  the  new 
paper  would  be  in  my  special  charge.  Before  the 
winter  had  passed  the  paper  was  upon  a  paying 
basis. 

A  little  later  J.  H.  Sanders  was  named  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  as  one  of  a  com- 
mission authorized  by  Congress  to  locate  lands 
adjacent  to  certain  Atlantic  seaboard  cities  for  the 
establishment  of  quarantine  stations  for  the  deten- 
tion of  cattle  then  being  imported  in  large  numbers 
from  England,  Scotland,  the  Netherlands  and  the 
Channel  Islands.  Prof.  James  Law  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  were  the 
other  members.  This  served  to  bring  'The  Gazette" 
into    still    closer    relationship   with    its   patrons.     In 


SOME    STEPS    IN    LIVE-STOCK    JOURNALISM  293 


1883  Mr.  Sanders  went  abroad  to  study  Percheron 
horse-breeding  in  France,  assisting  in  the  founding 
of  the  Stud  Book  for  the  race  in  its  native  land. 
He  also  held  a  special  commission  from  the  Secre- 
tary of  Agriculture  to  investigate  and  report  upon 
certain  conditions  surrounding  our  export  trade  in 
live  cattle  and  meats  with  Europe.  During  his 
absence  the  writer  hereof  found  himself  for  the  first 
time  charged  with  the  entire  responsibility  of  edit- 
ing and  publishing  the  weekly  issues  of  "The 
Gazette."  I  was  then  23  years  of  age,  and  my 
reward  for  that  summer's  work  was  a  gold  watch, 
carrying  inside  the  case  an  inscription  which  I  value 
at  the  present  moment  quite  as  much  as  anything  I 
possess.  By  this  time  the  paper's  patronage  was  so 
v/ell  established  that  I  could  have  then  carried  out 
m.y  original  plan  of  engaging  in  the  practice  of  law, 
but  in  the  face  of  the  situation  then  existing  it 
seemed  folly  to  relinquish  a  work  with  which  I  had 
now  become  closely  identified;  and  so  here  I  am, 
after  a  lapse  of  more  than  thirty  years,  still  shoving 
a  pencil  in  the  same  old  service,  and  with  no 
regrets. 

The  work  of  J.  H.  Sanders  as  author  and  editor 
has  long  since  been  concluded.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
history  of   the   development   of   our  American  agri- 


294  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


culture.  There  may  have  been  others  in  his  day 
whose  influence  was  farther-reaching  in  the  matter 
of  broadening  and  strengthening  our  live-stock 
industries — more  stimulating  in  the  matter  of  caus- 
ing two  good  animals  to  be  grown  where  but  one 
or  none  had  been  previously  produced.  It  is  perhaps 
not  for  me  to  undertake  to  enter  up  any  verdict 
upon  his  long  and  arduous  labors,  often  in  the 
teeth  of  circumstances  most  emphatically  adverse, 
and  I  do  not,  therefore,  assume  to  do  more  than 
submit  the  foregoing  outline  of  how  he  came  to 
engage  originally  in  stock-breeding;  how  he  became 
the  founder  of  live-stock  journalism,  and  how, 
incidentally,  this  sequence  of  events  set  me  upon 
my  own  little  journey. 


XXXIII 

WHERE   PRODUCTION  AND   DISTRIBUTION 
MEET 

In  all  these  ramblings  up  and  down  the  country- 
side, at  home  and  in  foreign  fields  as  well,  we  have 
merely  been  traversing  the  stepping-stones  that 
lead  at  last  to  the  practical  business  of  utilizing  in 
a  big  commercial  way  the  output  of  myriad  pastures 
and  yards  in  the  supplying  of  the  world's  necessities. 
To  the  men  whose  accomplishments  are  commem- 
orated by  the  Stock  Yard  Inn  and  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  gallery — to  the  men  who  annually  make  the 
International  Exposition — we  are  indebted  for  the 
seed  that  bears  its  never-failing  harvest  in  the  form 
of  thousands  of  heavily  -  freighted  trains  annually 
unloaded  in  our  great  central  markets.  To  the  men 
who  receive  and  find  an  outlet  for  all  this  product 
of  farm  and  range,  we  are  indebted  for  the  facilities 
without  which  the  nation's  biggest  industry  could 
never  have  attained  its  present  gigantic  proportions. 

The  library  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club, 
cornering,  as  it  does,  upon  Dexter  Park  and  Ex- 
change Avenues,  overlooks  scenes  that  serve  to 
remind  us  that  we  are  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  Yards — a  fact  that  recalls  us  from  our  wander- 
ings among  the  producers  far  afield,  and  brings  us 

29S 


296  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


at  once  in  touch  with  the  present.  We  have  left 
the  world  of  Charles  Colling,  Hugh  Watson  and 
Ben  Tomkins  and  enter  a  domain  in  which  such 
men  as  J.  Ogden  Armour,  James  J.  Hill,  Louis  and 
Edward  F.  Swift  and  Tom  Wilson  of  Morris  &  Co. 
are  towering  figures. 

The  largest  body  of  productive  soil  in  all  this 
world  is  that  which  would  fall  within  the  circum- 
ference of  a  circle,  say  1,000  miles  in  diameter, 
the  approximate  center  of  which  might  be  the 
campus  of  the  University  of  Illinois.  I  presume 
that  one  may  safely  say  that  in  respect  to  the 
number  of  comfortable  homes,  distribution  of  prop- 
erty, high  average  intelligence  of  the  people  and 
the  independent  character  of  its  citizenship,  history 
has  no  record  of  conditions  at  all  comparable, 
extent  of  territory  considered,  with  those  existing 
today  throughout  the  vast  region  that  would  be 
encompassed  within  a  radius  of  about  500  miles 
measured  from  Dean  Davenport's  office.  But 
harvests  however  bountiful,  herds  and  flocks  however 
countless,  surplus  soil  products  however  abundant, 
merely  cumber  the  earth  as  waste  material  until 
touched  by  the  magic  wand  of  someone  able  and 
willing  to  buy.  In  a  land,  therefore,  like  ours, 
where  the  very  cornerstone  of  all  prosperity  lies  in 


WHERE    PRODUCTION    AND    DISTRIBUTION    MEET       297 


an  adequate  demand  for  the  products  of  the  farm, 
one  should  not  underestimate  the  influence  upon 
our  agriculture  of  those  to  whose  breadth  of  vision, 
to  whose  master  minds,  to  whose  powerful  person- 
alities, to  whose  untiring  industry  and  daring  enter- 
prise, we  are  so  largely  indebted  for  the  broad 
outlets  that  have  made  the  central  west  the  seat 
of  the  most  opulent  agriculture  the  world  has  ever 
known. 

At  the  very  base  of  the  pyramid  of  our  prosper- 
ity is  blue  grass.  No  sooner  had  the  plowshares 
of  the  pioneers  pierced  the  bosom  of  our  western 
prairies,  turning  under  the  wild  grasses  and  the 
flowers  of  a  virgin  world,  than  this  sturdy  invader 
and  its  kindred  crept  slowly  but  surely  from  beyond 
the  Ohio  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  newly- 
settled  west,  supplying  the  first  green  herbage  of 
the  spring,  resting  throughout  the  torrid  summer 
months,  only  to  rise  into  luxuriant  profusion  again 
with  the  autumn  rains,  supplying  needed  provender 
up  to  the  very  latest  locking  of  the  land  in  the 
grip  of  the  northern  winter.  Permanent,  persistent, 
perennial,  the  enduring  basis  of  our  pastoral  wealth 
still  lies  securely  hidden  in  its  roots. 

And  with  the  blue  grass  we  have  that  marvel 
of  all  marvels,  the  Indian  corn!    Outside  the  limits 


298  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


of  Argentina,  there  is  no  great  area  of  cornland  in 
all  the  world  save  our  own.  There  has  been  no 
one  product  of  either  farm,  mine  or  factory  devel- 
oped by  any  other  nation  that  compares  in  value 
and  volume  with  the  mountains  of  maize  piled  up, 
even  in  comparatively  unfavorable  years,  by  our  great 
sisterhood  of  western  states.  Texas  heaped  upon 
Oklahoma!  Their  stores  piled  on  top  of  Kansas'  and 
Nebraska's!  South  Dakota  and  Minnesota  swelling 
the  huge  yields  of  Iowa  and  Missouri!  The  states 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River  lifting  the  harvest 
up  to  Himalayan  heights!  Tennessee  joined  with 
Kentucky,  Ohio  with  Indiana,  and  Michigan  with 
Wisconsin,  completing  the  endless  chain  of  this 
unparalleled  production!  In  the  center  of  it  all,  the 
state  of  Illinois!  Within  the  boundaries  of  Illinois, 
imperial  Chicago!  At  the  bottom  of  the  prosperity 
of  that  metropolis,  the  interests  that  make  the 
Union  Stock  Yards;  and  its  heart,  its  very  core, 
"Packingtown!" 

In  the  days  of  old  the  breed-makers  with  whom 
we  have  been  visiting  sold  their  fatted  bullocks  on 
the  streets  of  their  local  market  towns  to  some 
village  Swift.  Later  on  the  beasts  were  driven  to 
some  central  fair,  where  buyers  whose  require- 
ments were  on  a  larger   scale   came   to   barter  for 


WHERE    PRODUCTION    AND    DISTRIBUTION    MEET       299 


the  big  old-fashioned  steers.  And  when  the 
"Rocket" — the  primal  locomotive  that  stands  at 
Darlington,  the  ancient  Shorthorn  capital — and  its 
successors  came  along,  then  little  vans  were 
requisitioned,  and  the  fat  stock  sent  away  by  rail, 
maybe  as  far  as  London.  So  in  our  own  country. 
The  business  of  cattle-feeding,  originating  in  the 
south  branch  of  the  Potomac,  drifted  over  the  Blue 
Ridge  into  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  the  men  who  first 
used  corn  and  blue  grass  on  an  extensive  scale  in 
the  making  of  beef  as  a  commercial  proposition 
drove  their  herds  over  the  mountains  to  find  a  mar- 
ket in  the  seaboard  cities.  Then  came  the  settling 
of  the  cornbelt  proper,  the  first  lard  hog,  the  pure- 
bred bull  and  steel  highways.  Then,  too,  arrived 
men  of  keen  commercial  instincts  at  the  future 
hubs  of  western  lake  and  rail  transportation — men 
like  James  J.  Hill,  Philip  D.  Armour,  Gustavus  F. 
Swift  and  Nelson  Morris.  Corn  and  wheat  without 
hogs,  cattle  and  quick  transportation  had,  in  the 
early  days,  but  little  value.  Beef  and  lard  on  the 
hoof  in  large  quantities  without  a  market,  or  means 
of  getting  to  market,  were  a  waste.  A  place  where 
buyer  and  seller  could  be  brought  together  was  a 
prime  necessity.  Hence  the  stock  yards;  hence 
the  packing  houses;  hence  the  ''granger"  railways; 


300  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


hence  the  present  vast-extended  business  of  pro- 
ducing, marketing  and  distributing  the  meats  that 
feed  the  nations. 

The  enterprise  of  the  pioneer  packers  and  rail- 
way builders  has  supplemented  admirably  the  work 
of  the  Sanctum  Sanctorum  fathers.  Great  markets 
for  the  American  steer  and  the  American  hog  have 
been  found  that  did  not  formerly  exist.  The  men 
whose  portraits  adorn  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
library  have  made  possible  a  live-stock  husbandry 
in  these  United  States  more  extensive  than  any 
elsewhere  in  the  world. 

Studied  in  the  light  of  this  relationship  to  the 
development  of  the  middle  west  we  will  assuredly 
find  in  P.  D.  Armour  one  of  the  colossal  figures 
upon  the  canvas  that  portrays  the  rise  of  our 
greatest  industry.  His  story  may  serve  to  typify  the 
achievements  of  the  men  whose  pictures  may  be 
found  in  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin's  main  lounging 
room. 

Born  upon  a  farm  in  Oneida  County,  N.  Y.,  in 
1832,  he  died  in  Chicago  in  1901,  so  that  he 
practically  attained  the  traditional  three  score  years 
and  ten.  As  a  young  man  he  set  out,  with  a  stout 
heart,  a  few  hundred  dollars  in  his  pocket  and  a 
pack  on  his  back,  bound  for  the   goldfields  of   dis- 


WHERE    PRODUCTION    AND    DISTRIBUTION    MEET       301 


tant  California.  We  are  told  that  he  walked  most 
of  the  way  across  the  continent.  He  began  life 
there,  digging  ditches  for  those  seeking  the  precious 
metal,  at  $5  a  day.  Soon  he  took  contracts  for 
ditching,  and  in  this  way  accumulated  in  the  course 
of  five  years  the  sum  of  $8,000.  He  then  returned 
to  Oneida  County,  intending  to  buy  a  farm,  but  not 
finding  one  to  his  liking  he  recalled  that  on  his 
way  home  he  had  passed  through  a  promising  town 
on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan  known  as  Milwau- 
kee, even  then  an  important  loading  point  for  vessels 
carrying  western  products  eastward.  He  had  seen 
enough  of  the  prairies  and  the  plains  to  stir  his 
imagination.  The  west  had  a  destiny.  He  would 
stake  his  fortunes  upon  its  development.  And  so  in 
1859  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Fred  B. 
Miles  to  enter  the  produce  and  commission  busi- 
ness at  Milwaukee. 

This  was  in  the  days  when  the  farmers  of  these 
parts  smoked  and  cured  their  own  meats  and  hauled 
their  surplus,  along  with  hides  and  pelts  and  bags 
of  wheat,  to  Milwaukee  or  Chicago.  There  were 
thousands  of  homeseekers  and  an  endless  procession 
of  people  passing  through,  seeking  locations  or 
opportunities  for  entering  business.  These  "over- 
landers"  required    provisions    for   their  journeyings 


302  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


that  would  keep  until  used.  The  hour  for  the  begin- 
nings of  the  modern  packing  plant  had  therefore 
struck. 

John  Plankinton  was  operating  in  a  small  way 
at  Milwaukee.  Young  Armour  became  his  junior 
partner.  This  was  in  1864.  The  business  pros- 
pered. Meantime,  Chicago  loomed  larger  and  larger 
on  the  map.  The  lake-carrying  and  the  general 
outfitting  trade  began  centering  there,  and  in  18?'0 
Armour  &  Go.  entered  the  field  of  pork-packing  at 
this  point.  For  the  first  eight  years  the  business 
was  confined  to  pork-packing,  and  the  immediate 
effect  of  this  large  buying  was  a  pronounced  stim- 
ulation of  stock-keeping  throughout  the  cornbelt. 

The  Union  Stock  Yard  Go.  had  commenced 
operations  in  1865.  Other  men  of  enterprise  and 
vision  saw  the  dawn  of  a  wonderful  era  of  expan- 
sion in  food  production  in  the  central  west.  Gus- 
TAVus  F.  Swift  and  Nelson  Morris,  giants  both  in 
the  making,  began  about  1875.  Mr.  Armour  started 
killing  cattle  in  1878  and  sheep  in  1880.  The 
open  ranges  of  the  arid  west  were  by  that  time 
becoming  the  seat  of  extensive  grazing  operations, 
and  Mr.  Armour,  his  colleagues  and  followers,  now 
feeling  assured  of  steady  supplies  from  farm  and 
ranch,  began  developing  new  markets  in  all  direc- 


WHERE   PRODUCTION   AND    DISTRIBUTION    MEET       303 


tions.  At  the  same  time  they  commenced  to  work 
out  with  infinite  patience  and  at  large  expense  that 
marvelous  line  of  by-products  which  has  now  be- 
come of  such  tremendous  economic  importance  to 
the  world. 

It  would  require  hours  to  introduce  at  this  point  a 
complete  review,  giving  dates,  processes  and  figures, 
summarizing  the  evolution  of  the  extraordinary  busi- 
ness in  fresh,  cured  and  canned  meats,  lard,  beef 
extract,  glue,  fertilizer,  soap,  bone  novelties,  hides, 
pelts,  wool,  leather,  ammonia,  pepsin,  curled  hair 
and  other  products  of  the  modern  packing  plant. 
We  would  need  still  other  hours  to  trace  the  begin- 
nings of  the  development  of  the  science  of  refrig- 
eration as  applied  to  the  business  of  transporting 
and  distributing  food  products.  It  would  be  a  won- 
drous story  if  one  could  tell  the  particulars  of  the 
campaign  waged  for  foreign  markets.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  these  men  are  selling  food  products  to  all 
the  world.  Their  goods  have  been  cached  within 
both  the  arctic  and  antarctic  circles,  and  a  story  is 
told  of  an  unopened  Chicago  tin  once  found  by 
African  hunters  safely  stowed  away  inside  a  croco- 
dile killed  on  the  Zambezi  River. 

The  aggregate  value  of  the  animals  passed 
through  the  Chicago  Union  Stock  Yards  during  the 


304  AT   THE    SIGN   OF   THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


first  forty-eight  years  of  their  existence  totaled  the 
unthinkable  sum  of  $9,706,643,548!  And  there 
are  other  markets,  and  other  Swifts  and  Armours. 
It  is  true  that  prices  rise  and  prices  fall,  now  as 
always — the  producers  ever  bearing  the  larger  risk, 
and  sometimes  meeting  loss.  Would  that  greater 
stability  in  values  could  be  assured;  would  that  the 
sunshine  and  the  rain  could  always  be  rightly  dis- 
tributed. But  since  time  began  this  has  not  been 
vouchsafed  to  those  who  plow  and  sow  and  reap. 
An  undoubted  element  of  chance  enters  always 
into  the  operations  of  tillers  of  the  soil  and  feeders 
for  stock-yard  markets.  There  is  no  denying  that. 
Feasts  are  sometimes  followed  by  famine;  high 
values  succeeded  by  falling  quotations;  but  the  con- 
servation of  our  soil  demands  imperatively  the  stead- 
fast maintenance  of  our  live-stock  industries,  and 
the  forces  that  can  best  insure  the  permanent  pros- 
perity of  the  growers  meet  in  the  library  of  the 
Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club.  Packers,  producers, 
bankers  and  kings  of  the  transportation  world  are 
alike  welcomed  and  honored  under  its  roof.  This  is 
as  it  should  be,  for  their  interests  are  incontestably 
identical. 


i 

1} 

A 

1 

MAIN  CORRIDOR  OF  THE   SADDLE   AND   SIRLOIN   CLUB 


ii 

i-r 

THE  SMOKING  ROOM— SADDLE  AND  SIRLOIN   CLUB 


XXXIV 

"SHOULD  AULD  ACQUAINTANCE  BE 
FORGOT?" 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  Mortimer 
Levering  and  Howard  Davison  as  men  who  not 
only  were  instrumental  in  founding  the  International 
Live  Stock  Exposition,  but  subsequently  contributed 
largely  to  the  creation  of  the  atmosphere  that  has 
placed  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  distinctly  in 
a  class  by  itself.  Both  were  members  of  what  has 
been  termed  "The  Old  Guard."  The  former  was 
unhappily  called  hence  before  his  allotted  time,  but 
his  portrait  speaks  to  us  still  of  golden  hours  when 
congenial  spirits  met  to  cultivate  the  joys  of  friend- 
ships based  upon  mutual  interests. 

"Mort"  came  to  us  from  Indiana.  A  devoted 
admirer  of  highly-bred  animals,  wherever  the  na- 
tion's choicest  specimens  were  gathered  for  com- 
petition there  would  you  find  him.  At  Madison 
Square  Garden,  at  Toronto,  Chicago,  or  at  leading 
state  exhibitions,  in  Kentucky  or  Virginia,  or  may- 
hap at  an  English  Royal,  he  might  be  seen  among 
the  real  enthusiasts.  For  years  secretary  and  gen- 
eral manager  for  the  American  Shropshire  Sheep 
Breeders'  Association,  he  drew  into  that  organization 
one   of  the   largest   memberships   ever   enjoyed  by 

30S 


306  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


any  similar  society.  Jersey  cattle  also  appealed  to 
him  with  special  force,  and  his  interest  in  and 
expert  knowledge  of  harness  and  saddle  horses  and 
ponies  resulted  in  his  being  called  often  to  officiate 
in  the  judge's  box.  He  was  secretary  at  different 
times  of  more  different  live-stock  associations  than 
any  other  man  of  his  generation.  It  was  as  an 
officer  of  the  International,  and  of  the  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  Club  after  his  removal  from  Indianapolis  to 
Chicago,  that  his  rare  social  gifts  brought  him  con- 
spicuously forward  in  the  circles  that  centered  in 
those  two  organizations.  A  willing  and  efficient 
worker  when  there  were  serious  matters  to  be  dis- 
posed of,  it  was  in  his  leisure  hours  about  the 
Club  that  his  wit  and  his  occasional  impromptu 
impersonations  commonly  rendered  him  the  life  of 
any  company.  His  place  in  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
life  will  never  be  entirely  filled. 

Howard  Davison  of  Altamont  Farm,  New  York, 
a  man  of  engaging  personality  and  an  official  of  the 
International  Live  Stock  Exposition  from  its  incep- 
tion, has  perhaps  never  received  his  just  dues  at 
the  hands  of  the  American  stock-loving  public.  His 
intimates  know  and  appreciate  him  as  one  who  has 
rendered  outstanding  service  in  the  rise  and  prog- 
ress   of    the    Shropshire    sheep    on    this    side    the 


'SHOULD  AULD  ACaUAINTANCE  BE  FORGOT?"   307 


water.  For  years  ardently  devoted  to  their  cause, 
he  bought  heavily  of  England's  best,  and  has  the 
unique  distinction  of  being  the  only  American  who 
ever  had  the  courage  to  send  lambs  of  his  own 
production  to  the  English  Royal  Show,  where  his 
entries  received  official  recognition  in  the  ancient 
home  of  the  breed  in  competition  with  the  very 
flower  of  the  old-world  flocks.  None  but  those  who 
have  seen  the  extraordinary  Shropshire  classes  at 
an  English  national  show  can  fully  comprehend  what 
it  means  thus  to  beard  the  British  lion  in  his  lair 
with  animals  of  this  particular  type.  Davison  also 
had  a  deep-rooted  interest  in  Guernsey  cattle  and 
in  ponies  of  the  larger  types.  He  stirred  New 
York  City  to  the  point  of  holding  a  national  show 
at  Madison  Square  Garden,  modeled  along  our  own 
International  Exposition  lines,  but  his  Herculean 
labors  in  behalf  of  such  an  event  unfortunately 
were  not  properly  seconded  in  the  great  metropolis. 
I  have  said  that  Davison's  real  services  have 
not  yet  been  fully  acknowledged.  This,  I  believe, 
to  be  due  primarily  to  the  fact  that  he  has  always 
been  such  a  prolific  source  of  entertainment  to  his 
friends  and  associates  that  they  have  in  many  cases 
failed  to  get  the  more  serious  side  of  his  nature. 
Once  let  a  man   gain   a   reputation   as   a   humorist, 


508  AT    THE    SIGN    OF   THE   STOCK    YARD    INN 


and  he  has  to  work  harder  than  anybody  else  in 
order  to  be  taken  seriously.  The  mere  fact  that 
"Davy"  has  a  convulsing  repertoire  of  songs  and 
stories  does  not  lessen  in  the  least  the  value  of 
his  work  in  behalf  of  American  live-stock  hus- 
bandry. His  portrait  is  soon  to  be  put  in  the  place 
where  it  belongs,  by  Levering's  side. 

John  Glay  is  another  one  of  the  pillars  of  the 
International  Show.  Scottish  Borderer  by  birth,  he 
hails  from  that  historic  region  where  the  Teviot's 
"silver  tide"  is  lost  in  "Tweed's  fair  river  broad 
and  deep."  He  has  spent  many  a  strenuous  winter 
there  in  recent  years  raiding  the  red  fox,  one  day 
with  the  North  Northumberland  hounds,  and  on  the 
next  riding  hard  and  fast  on  the  other  side  with 
the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's.  In  fact,  he  was  master 
of  the  first-named  pack  when  the  great  clash  of 
arms  put  an  end  to  the  "mimic  warfare  of  the 
chase."  Early  in  the  organization  of  the  Interna- 
.tional  Show  it  was  decided  to  bring  out  each  year  an 
old- country  judge  to  help  place  the  prizes  on  our 
Christmas  cattle,  and  it  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  Mr. 
Glay  and  myself  to  extend  these  invitations. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  nothing  has  added 
more  to  the  dignity  and  the  prestige  of  the  Inter- 
national than  the  bringing  out  of  these  gentlemen 


SHOULD  AULD  ACQUAINTANCE  BE  FORGOT?"   309 


to  give  US  the  benefit  of  unbiased  outside  expert 
opinion  upon  our  best-fitted  grade  and  cross-bred 
bullocks.  Although  in  several  notable  instances 
prominently  identified  in  their  own  country  with 
particular  breeds,  in  no  case  has  any  one  of  these 
visitors  permitted  that  fact  to  warp  his  Chicago  judg- 
ments. It  has  come  to  be  an  unwritten  law  that 
these  distinguished  guests  shall  arrive  in  Chicago 
on  Friday  or  Saturday  prior  to  the  opening  of  the 
show,  and  be  delivered,  presumably  for  safe  keeping 
away  from  all  temptations,  into  the  hands  of 
William  R.  Goodwin,  whose  portrait  you  will  find 
greeting  you,  by  the  way,  among  other  familiar  faces 
in  what  is  commonly  called  the  reception  hall  of 
the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club.  Mr.  Goodwin  has  been 
a  "Breeder's  Gazette"  editor  since  time  whereof 
the  memory  of  the  oldest  "rail-bird"  runneth  not  to 
the  contrary.  The  dean  of  all  show  reporters  living 
or  dead,  he  keeps  our  British  judges  safe  and  sound 
at  Oakhurst,  where  designing  exhibitors  or  over- 
zealous  friends  may  not  get  at  them  before  they 
enter  the  great  arena  to  undertake  their  trying  task. 
These  judges  to  date,  in  the  order  of  service 
rendered,  have  been  as  follows:  1900,  J.  B.  Ellis, 
Walsingham,  England.  1901,  James  Peter,  Berkeley, 
England.    1902,  James  Biggar,  Dalbeattie,  Scotland. 


310  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


1905,  W.  S.  Ferguson,  Perth,  Scotland.  1904,  John 
Ross,  Meikel  Tarrel,  Scotland.  1905,  Thomas  B. 
Freshney,  Lincolnshire,  England.  1906,  A.  P.  Tur- 
ner, Herefordshire,  England.  1907,  James  Durno, 
Aberdeenshire,  Scotland.  1908,  George  Sinclair, 
Dalmeny,  Scotland.  1909,  William  Heap,  Man- 
chester, England.  1910,  H.  M.  Kirkham,  London, 
England.  1911,  J.  J.  Gridlan,  London,  England. 
1912,  R.  H.  Keene,  Westfield,  Medmenham,  Eng- 
land. 1913,  J.  R.  Gampbell,  Lairg,  Sutherland, 
Scotland. 

Tom  Glark,  whom  I  have  already  mentioned  in 
these  notes,  by  reason  of  his  long  and  sensationally 
successful  showyard  experience  has  steadily  been 
the  International  directory's  choice  as  general 
superintendent  of  cattle  at  the  December  shows. 
He  came  from  Herefordshire  as  a  young  man,  now 
near  fifty  years  ago.  You  will  scarcely  credit  this 
statement  when  you  see  him.  You  will  swear  it  is 
an  error  when  you  talk  with  him.  He  wears  lightly 
indeed  the  years  that  have  passed  over  his  head 
since  he  became  a  butcher's  apprentice  in  Gleveland 
on  his  first  arrival  in  the  States,  and  no  trick  in 
the  showman's  trade  is  likely  to  escape  his  vigilance. 

Prof.  G.  F.  Gurtiss  has  sat  in  the  International's 
councils  continuously  as  the   special  representative 


"SHOULD  AULD  ACQUAINTANCE  BE  FORGOT?"   311 


of  the  colleges.  Probably  no  member  of  his  pro- 
fession has  had  so  extended  an  experience  in  deal- 
ing with  live-stock  competitions.  It  has  been  the 
steady  aim  of  the  management  of  the  Interna- 
tional Show,  as  well  as  of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin 
Club,  to  lend  every  possible  encouragement  to  the 
colleges,  their  faculties,  their  graduates  and  the 
undergraduates,  and  Dean  Gurtiss,  needless  to 
say,  has  served  as  an  admirable  connecting  link  in 
the  consideration  and  execution  of  every  plan 
touching  educational  topics. 

The  Hon.  A.  J.  Lovejoy,  big  chief  in  the  Berk- 
shire camp,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  experienced 
fair  managers  in  America,  has  worked  hard  in  the 
International  harness  from  the  opening  show.  His 
management  of  the  swine  department  has  been 
continuous  and  successful,  and  he  has  served  the 
association  also  as  its  President. 

Emil  Ingwersen's  name  must  be  included  in  any 
reference  to  men  who  have  given  freely  of  their 
time  and  practical  judgment  to  the  fortunes  of  the 
big  show,  and  the  Club  as  well.  No  man  is  more 
conversant  with  our  live-stock  industries,  and  few 
could  have  been  so  eminently  useful  and  depend- 
able in  helping  to  meet  and  solve  the  problems 
arising  in    connection    with   both  International  and 


312  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


Saddle  and  Sirloin  affairs.  His  services  in  the 
handling  of  the  carload-lot  exhibits,  and  his  advo- 
cacy of  the  "short-fed  special"  prizes  in  connection 
therewith,  entitle  him  to  the  grateful  thanks  of 
American  stockmen. 

James  W.  Martin  is  another  "wheel  horse"  in 
International  team  work.  For  years  one  of  the 
most  esteemed  members  of  the  directorate,  a  man 
whose  "horse  sense"  is  always  in  evidence,  Mr. 
Martin  has  acted  with  Emil  Ingwersen  in  the  carlot 
section  of  the  fat  stock  show,  and  always  in  the 
light  of  practical  knowledge  of  his  subject  and  with 
justice  and  fairness  ever  uppermost  in  the  working 
of  his  practical  mind.  In  the  field  of  blood-stock 
production  he  has  left  a  powerful  impress  for  good 
through  his  intelligent  and  persistent  work  with  the 
Red  Polled  Norfolks — one  of  England's  best  dual- 
purpose  types  of  cattle. 

Gol.  John  S.  Gooper,  one  of  the  martial  figures 
of  the  Yards  and  known  to  nearly  every  horseman  in 
America,  has  been  a  director  of  the  International 
from  the  beginning,  sharing  with  Ogilvie  in  the 
honors  that  have  attached  to  the  creation  and 
upbuilding  of  the  greatest  equine  displays  now  to 
be  seen  in  any  American  showyard,  and  he  is 
one  of  the  faithful  devotees  of  Saddle  and  Sirloin 


"SHOULD  AULD  ACQUAINTANCE  BE  FORGOT?"   313 


shrines.  May  he  long  be  spared  to  a  community 
in  the  conduct  of  whose  affairs  he  has  borne  a 
distinguished  and  honorable  part. 

O.  E.  Bradfute  of  Aberdeen- Angus  fame;  T.  F. 
B.  SoTHAM,  known  to  all  admirers  of  the  Herefords; 
I.  M.  Forbes,  a  leader  in  Shorthorn  circles;  James 
Brown  of  Armour  &  Co.;  G.  B.  Van  Norman  and  M. 
P.  BuELL,  prominent  in  the  commission  trade;  Fred 
Pabst,  whose  activities  in  connection  with  Wisconsin 
stock-breeding  have  made  him  a  national  figure; 
W.  S.  Dunham  of  Oaklawn;  W.  G.  Brown,  ex- 
President  of  the  New  York  Gentral  Railway;  Frank 
Harding  of  the  American  Shorthorn  Breeders'  Asso- 
ciation, Overton  Harris,  President  of  the  Hereford 
Association;  Robert  Miller,  one  of  Ontario's  best- 
known  stockmen,  and  R.  A.  Fairbairn  of  New  Jersey 
are  also  upon  the  honor  roll  of  those  who  have 
served  as  International  directors.  Senator  Harris, 
Richard  Gibson  and  William  E.  Skinner  have  already 
been  referred  to  at  some  length. 

I  speak  feelingly  of  these  men,  because  it  was 
my  fortune  to  sit  with  them  for  many  years  at 
International  business  meetings.  I  know  of  their 
unselfish  and  invaluable  service.  I  have  seen  them 
for  so  long,  not  only  in  council,  but  in  action,  that 
I  realize  more  fully  perhaps  than  the  average  patron 


314  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


of  the  Chicago  exhibition  how  much  our  people  are 
really  in  their  debt.  They  have  helped  to  carry  the 
burden  of  the  undertaking  at  a  time  when  success 
was  largely  dependent  upon  their  judgment  and 
fidelity  to  the  work  in  hand.  These  men  are,  in  the 
natural  course  of  events,  being  succeeded  by  others 
who  will,  I  am  sure,  when  we  get  out  from  under 
the  curse  of  the  "foot-and-mouth,"  carry  the  Inter- 
national to  still  higher  levels. 

It  would  be  almost  criminal,  in  closing,  not  to 
speak  of  Tom  Bell's  masterly  work  in  the  ring  in 
the  handling  of  the  elaborate  evening  programs. 
Such  parades  have  probably  never  before  been 
staged  elsewhere  in  any  showyard  in  all  animal 
history,  and  the  cleverness  with  which  they  have 
been  managed  has  been  the  subject  of  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  comment  many  a  time  and  oft.  Mr.  Henkle, 
Mr.  Leonard's  successor  as  General  Manager  of 
the  Yards,  has  from  behind  the  throne  spent  many 
a  weary  hour  working  out  details  that  have  been 
essential  to  right  results.  Barney  Heide,  placid  and 
patient,  saddled  with  the  secretaryship  and  general 
superintendency,  works  fifty-two  weeks  in  the  year 
for  everybody  concerned.  Statistician  Horine,  too, 
comes  in  for  honorable  mention,  and  ye  who  know 
something  of  the  importance  of  a  master  mechanic 


SHOULD  AULD  ACGUAINTANCE  BE  FORGOT?"   315 


in  devising  and  carrying  out  "while-you-wait"  plans 
for  the  suitable  housing  and  handling  of  a  world's 
animal  fair,  forget  not  Bill  Ray. 

George  Harding  &  Son  were  the  first  to  take 
advantage  of  the  facilities  offered  by  the  Saddle 
AND  Sirloin  Club  for  entertaining  on  a  large  scale. 
On  the  eve  of  an  important  auction  sale  at  the  Yards 
they  properly  christened  the  main  hall  of  the  Club 
by  giving  a  banquet  to  several  hundred  invited 
guests.  This  was  really  the  dedicatory  service 
celebrating  the  consecration  of  the  Pedigree  Record 
Building  to  its  present  uses,  and  in  accepting  Mr. 
Harding's  invitation  to  occupy  the  toastmaster's 
chair  for  that  evening,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  review- 
ing the  sequence  of  events  leading  up  to  the  results 
that  had  then  materialized,  and  of  felicitating  the 
breeders  of  America  upon  coming  into  so  valuable  an 
heritage  at  that  time.  Since  then  innumerable  lunch- 
eons and  "get-together"  dinners  have  been  given 
at  the  Glub,  at  which  matters  relating  to  various 
important  interests  have  been  effectively  promoted. 

Old  acquaintance   should   indeed   not   be   forgot, 

and   I   must  not   close  without  some   reference  to 

'  everybody's   friend   Jack   Hill,   long    time    steward 

of  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club.     If  the  world  goes 

not  well   with   you;  if   work   or   worry  gets  you  on 


316  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


the  run;  if  the  heavens  be  hung  with  black;  if 
"blue  devils"  are  on  your  trail,  then  as  the  shades 
of  night  fall  deep  o'er  Packingtown,  hie  ye  to  Hill, 
and  let  him  make  prescription.  There  is  cheer 
a-plenty  in  the  dinner  of  which  he  consents  to  be 
the  architect. 


XXXV 
A  WAYSIDE  SHRINE 

Still  another  successful  effort  at  throwing  an 
ameliorating  influence  around  the  business  at  the 
Yards  has  to  be  recorded,  and  our  task  is  done. 
And  here  again  is  seen  the  handiwork  of  Arthur 
Leonard.  I  refer  to  the  office  fitted  up  just  outside 
the  main  entrance  to  the  Yards  for  the  personal 
use  of  Robert  Ogilvie  in  recognition  of  services 
rendered  in  connection  with  the  rehabilitation  pro- 
gram so  splendidly  carried  out  by  the  present 
management. 

As  Secretary  of  the  American  Clydesdale  Breed- 
ers' Association,  Mr.  Ogilvie  required  room  for  the 
transaction  of  the  business  of  that  organization. 
You  will  recognize  the  place  as  you  near  the  rail- 
way tracks  on  the  right-hand  side  as  you  approach 
the  stone  arch  leading  into  the  greatest  live-stock 
market  in  the  world,  and  if  you  will  enter  the 
doorway  of  the  unpretentious  structure  with  the 
plastered  and  timbered  second-story  exterior  you 
will  find  yourself  inside  the  room  where,  in  the 
evening  of  his  life,  Mr.  Ogilvie  not  only  discharges 
his  secretarial  duties,  but  where  in  the  midst  of 
surroundings-  peculiarly  unique  and  characteristic 
he  welcomes  every  man  whose  heart  beats  respon- 

317 


318  AT    THE    SIGN    OF    THE    STOCK    YARD    INN 


sive  to  the  traditions  and  inspirations  of  the  Saddle 
AND  Sirloin  Club. 

The  dominating  feature  of  this  place  is  a  great 
broad-breasted  chimney-place  of  good  red  bricks. 
Not  one  of  those  feeble  imitations  of  the  fine  old 
fire-places  of  our  fathers  so  often  seen  in  these 
degenerate  days,  but  a  wide,  deep,  generous  con- 
struction with  a  capacity  that  tells  of  solid  comfort 
when  old  Boreas  howls  around  outside  and  the  big 
back-log  is  wrapped  in  cheery  flames.  Furnishings 
of  solid  oak  stand  upon  a  red-tiled  floor.  The  walls 
bear  photographs  of  various  celebrities.  As  might 
be  expected  of  a  man  who  represents  one  of 
Britain's  favorite  breeds,  portraits  of  the  late  King 
Edward  VII  and  his  present  majesty  of  England — 
whose  interest  in  good  breeding  at  Sandringham  and 
Windsor  is  a  matter  of  pride  with  every  man  of 
British  antecedents — occupy  conspicuous  positions. 
Clydesdale  champions  at  the  Highland,  the  Royal, 
Toronto  or  the  International  challenge  your  attention 
on  every  hand.  Back  of  the  massive  table  upon 
which  the  Secretary  does  his  work  photos  of  men 
whose  names  stand  high  on  the  scroll  of  live-stock 
fame  keep  watch  and  ward.  Nearby  is  a  treasured 
replica  of  Romanelli's  heroic  memorial  bust  of 
Senator  Harris. 


A    WAYSIDE    SHRINE  319 


The  mantelpiece  bears  this  inscription: 

"DEDICATED  TO  THE 

DIGNITY  OF  HUSBANDRY,  THE  CULTIVATION  OF  THE 

HEART,  THE  JOYS  OF  FRIENDSHIP,  AND 

GOOD  WILL  AMONG  MEN." 

It  is  all  in  delightful  contrast  to  the  conventional 
business  office,  and  here  the  Secretary  sometimes 
sits  and  dreams.  Here,  and  at  the  Club,  he  seeks 
as  best  he  may  to  lead  men  to  forget  at  times  the 
lure  of  gold,  and  devote  an  occasional  hour,  at 
least,  to  thoughts  of  things  outside  the  counting- 
room  or  market-place.  He  has  proved  the  truth 
that  mere  financial  gains  have  been  reaped,  many  a 
time  and  oft,  like  Tam  O'Shanter's  joys,  "ower  dear" 
— at  too  great  a  sacrifice  of  health  and  happiness. 

Oh,  yes,  I  know !  Sentiment,  they  say,  butters 
nobody's  bread;  but  my  good  friend,  if  ye  are  a 
stranger  to  it  and  inclined  to  call  it  weakness, 
hearken  to  this,  my  admonition  !  You  may  yet  live 
to  see  the  day  when  your  heart  will  feed  upon  it 
fondly,  and  find  in  its  proper  exercise  a  sweeter 
solace  than  was  ever  drawn  by  living  man  from 
bonds  or  mortgages.  I  am  sure  that  if  some  of  us 
had  a  little  less  of  the  one  in  our  make-up  we 
might  have  acquired  more  of  the  other  forms  of 
wealth;  but,  speaking  for  myself,  I  am  content. 


XXXVI 
FALLING    LEAVES 

The  preparation  of  these  notes  has  occupied 
various  idle  hours  during  my  summer  in  the  country. 
Opposite  my  window  in  the  edge  of  a  wood  the 
oaks  had  just  put  forth  their  leaves  as  these 
recollections  first  began  to  take  on  the  form  of  a 
settled  purpose.  Meantime,  another  seed  time  and 
harvest  have  come  and  gone. 

Last  night  there  was  an  unmistakable  note  in 
the  wind  that  tossed  the  branches  overhanging  the 
cottage  roof.  It  was  ominous  of  sleet  and  snows 
to  come.  Today  the  leaves  are  falling  fast.  One 
by  one  they  silently  part  from  the  parent  twigs 
and  find  rest  upon  the  bosom  of  the  earth  that 
gave  them  birth.  They  have  fulfilled  their  mission 
and  the  bare  arms  that  bore  them  stand  out  now 
in  bold  relief  against  the  autumn  sky,  awaiting  the 
resurrection  of  another  April's  sun  and  showers. 
And  as  the  maple,  elm  and  oak  cast  aside  their 
wondrous  raiment,  word  comes  that  a  comrade-in- 
arms, one  who  for  more  than  twenty  years  has 
marched  closely  by  my  side,  has  put  off  that  which 
is  corruptible  and  put  on  incorruption.  Joe  Wing 
is  dead.  He  too  has  spent  many  happy  hours  in 
and  about  the  International  showyard  and  the  Club. 

320 


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FALLING    LEAVES  321 


In  the  early  watches  of  the  night,  like  the  leaf 
that  is  hurried  away  by  a  passing  storm  into  the 
depths  of  the  forest,  he  has  departed.  And  he  will 
no  more  return.  He  loved  the  whole  Saddle  and 
Sirloin  world,  and  contributed  through  his  unique 
mentality  to  its  enrichment. 

We  have  been  dealing  here  in  large  degree  with 
men  of  the  long  ago;  but  I  now  begin  to  realize 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  charmed  circle  of  those 
with  whom  I  have  walked  and  talked  and  worked 
within  my  own  lifetime  is  rapidly  narrowing.  One 
by  one  the  oldest  and  the  best  of  friends  are  taking 
their  way  silently  into  the  shades;  and  year  after 
year  the  Saddle  and  Sirloin  Club  will  become  to 
me  more  and  more  a  place  of  memories.  Happily, 
however,  the  pictures  and  the  scenes  and  incidents 
which  they  recall  exert,  not  a  feeling  of  depression, 
but  of  deep  and  mellow  satisfaction.  These  men 
have  not  really  gone  on  and  left  nothing  of  them- 
selves for  our  comfort  and  consolation.  Here  they 
have  met  and  exchanged  words  and  sentiments  that 
live.  Each  has  given  something  of  himself  to  what 
I  can  only  call  again  the  "atmosphere"  of  these 
rooms.  Nowhere  else  have  these  splendid  types  of 
men  come  together  so  intimately.  No  other  spot 
has   been  the   rendezvous   of  so   many   who   have 


322  AT   THE    SIGN   OF   THE   STOCK   YARD    INN 


helped  to  build  and  shape  our  live-stock  history  in 
recent  years,  and  the  larger  grows  the  list  of  those 
who  have  gone  to  join  the  great  majority,  the  more 
sacred   will    these    portrait-covered    walls    become. 


UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA 
BRANCH    OF    THE    COLLEGE    OF    AGRICULTURE 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

6EF 

$CP  18  ^9^3 

DEC  6     1934 
AUG  2  81935 

ff^!^? 

i 

■  '7 

OCT  3  0  '41 

FEB  2  5 '42 

5m-8,'26 

ohd 


333972    ^^5^/ 


e^s 


UNIVERSIJY/i)F  C^F^IA  LIBRARY 


1 


